Bands, singers at open mic night deserve coverage
Issue date: 3/18/05 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
Since The Rocket usually does a decent job covering on-campus events, I was surprised to see nothing about the open mic night held about a month ago at Rocky's. The reasons I bring this up are:
1) Open mic nights are an alternative to the more traditional, liquid form of entertainment often sought on campus here at SRU. Open mic nights also actually involve SRU students performing.
2) A talented new group of musicians came on named Big House Pete. BHP seemed a bit more indebted to their music than any of the other prior groups had been, given this was an amateur open mic night. They wanted to, justifiably so, showcase their talents, too, and provide a good time to the college student body. BHP quickly got their equipment set up on stage and, after a brief mechanical set-back with an amp, got their performance underway. Their commitment beyond a hobby showed through when they opened up with their cover song, "Big House." The audience quickly awoke from their mellow attendance. The group had an obvious stage presence that was loud, energetic and comically involving. The style of music was sort of a Korn meets ZZ Top mixture. BHP did three songs, and was very well liked by the crowd. Their charisma was apparent by their ability to get the crowd to chime in with their chorus sets on request, and applause following their show.
I had an opportunity to speak with a member of the band and SRU student, Mark Hensel. He explained the band has experience performing, and is actually participating in a rock band competition called Emergenza (www.emergenza.net). The event is being held at Mr. Small's Funhouse in Millvale on April 1. The attending crowd that evening will decide who the best regional band is to go on to compete at a national level. Hensel also said that the band's Web site is www.bighousepete.com, should anyone want to learn more about the band, or let the band know what they thought about the show. Also on the Web site, those interested can purchase Big House Pete's CD (which donates a portion of the proceeds to supporting the troops in Iraq).
The group will also be performing live on WDVE (102.5 FM) around 9 a.m., on their "Coffee House" segment the Friday morning of the Emergenza show.
Lance Warheit
Marketing major
Since The Rocket usually does a decent job covering on-campus events, I was surprised to see nothing about the open mic night held about a month ago at Rocky's. The reasons I bring this up are:
1) Open mic nights are an alternative to the more traditional, liquid form of entertainment often sought on campus here at SRU. Open mic nights also actually involve SRU students performing.
2) A talented new group of musicians came on named Big House Pete. BHP seemed a bit more indebted to their music than any of the other prior groups had been, given this was an amateur open mic night. They wanted to, justifiably so, showcase their talents, too, and provide a good time to the college student body. BHP quickly got their equipment set up on stage and, after a brief mechanical set-back with an amp, got their performance underway. Their commitment beyond a hobby showed through when they opened up with their cover song, "Big House." The audience quickly awoke from their mellow attendance. The group had an obvious stage presence that was loud, energetic and comically involving. The style of music was sort of a Korn meets ZZ Top mixture. BHP did three songs, and was very well liked by the crowd. Their charisma was apparent by their ability to get the crowd to chime in with their chorus sets on request, and applause following their show.
I had an opportunity to speak with a member of the band and SRU student, Mark Hensel. He explained the band has experience performing, and is actually participating in a rock band competition called Emergenza (www.emergenza.net). The event is being held at Mr. Small's Funhouse in Millvale on April 1. The attending crowd that evening will decide who the best regional band is to go on to compete at a national level. Hensel also said that the band's Web site is www.bighousepete.com, should anyone want to learn more about the band, or let the band know what they thought about the show. Also on the Web site, those interested can purchase Big House Pete's CD (which donates a portion of the proceeds to supporting the troops in Iraq).
The group will also be performing live on WDVE (102.5 FM) around 9 a.m., on their "Coffee House" segment the Friday morning of the Emergenza show.
Lance Warheit
Marketing major
