Paradox Rocks!
Paradox Cafe is no stranger to musical performances (see Open Mic Nights every other Thursday at 6pm), but on Saturday, October 10, Paradox emptied itself of furniture and filled up with amps and free earplugs for a night of ear-shattering revelry. This was the first Paradox show in a good long while, and even the ennui-hardened Reedies supplied an atmosphere that bordered on giddy.
With a hearty crowd, the evening was kicked off by Kid Named Garlic Bread, featuring Ben Carlson ‘30 and Rio Mississippi ‘30 trading off on drums and guitar, while Brayden Puchtler ‘29 kept up a steady bass. The band swung the crowd right into a solid mosh (amazingly, no one in the small space was shoved into the microphones) with gritty grunge rock. The intermissions between songs produced some lively crowdwork, and we learned that the band had been performing together for “somewhere between 10 years and 24 hours.” Toward the end of their set, Mississippi and Carlson traded screams into the microphone with a roaring response from the spasmodic crowd.
After a great hardcore start, the tone pivoted as Lady J (or perhaps Lady Josh?) traded in for the second set. This group consisted of charismatic vocalist Azadé Boyd-Cole ‘28, the impeccable Ben Iannini ‘28 on guitar and vocals, Damyn Dettling ‘29 slyly kicking around the drums, Aaron “Maestro of Funk” Hailey ‘29 on bass, and Puchtler back for more with a mind-bending blues/psychedelic guitar. Their set started out calmly, but gradually picked up steam (and moshers) to a bombastic Paramore climax—again, much to the screaming enthusiasm of the crowd. Minor setbacks like mic feedback or the surprise addition of another band member (a rather cute dog) could not stop the band from performing a well-executed set.
The next band was (perhaps unsurprisingly) late, and so an hour’s intermission (read, smoke break) was called. At Dettling’s urging, the crowd was to return at 8:45 sharp. In the meantime, some dedicated onlookers joined in the fun and riffed around for an hour while the crowd came and went. By 9pm, the band had still not materialized and a jazz quartet intervened, consisting of Cole Ziemer ‘28 on bass, Jamie Ardell ‘29 on drums, the well dressed Eli Wolfe ‘29 on guitar, and Dettling with a jazzy trumpet. The group improvised their way through tunes ranging from contemplative to positively thumping, all while displaying outstanding technical mastery. Indeed, so righteous was Ziemer’s bass solo that the aux chord broke and Wolfe and Ardell had to go on without a belly-vibrating underpinning while support crews valiantly tried to fix the issue.
By my estimate, it was around 9:15pm when Guardrail (violinist included) arrived, to great fanfare, and probably 9:30pm before they got swinging. Of course, the long-anticipated band supplied a rockin’ comeback and whipped the returning crowd right back into action. Ana Zervigon ‘29’s violin managed to cut through the electric sensations provided by Wolfe on guitar, the unshakable Feyd Knisley ‘28 on bass, and Ardell again meditatively rampaging on the drums. Vocalist Dettling covered a huge range, singing such crowd pleasers as “I Have to Pee” to the adoring students of Peed College.
Unfortunately, my recollection of events at this point in the evening was thwarted by a non-negligable dosage of CH3CH2OH merrily making its way through my system. Nonetheless, the last band, Mothball, produced a monumentally impressive wall of sound that, as always, the Reedies were happy to mosh to. This group consisted of Ziemer back on bass, Whitley Gilchrist ‘27 shredding their guitar, Dettling for a hat trick on guitar, and Max Fox-Kemper ‘29 keeping it all together on drums. The band aptly provided a (literally) resounding and fitting end to the evening.
Such a fantastic show would not be possible without the support and planning of a significant crew behind the scenes. Shoutout to Paradox manager Maha Fawzi ‘27 for helping host and organize alongside Dettling, and Hildegard Pulliam ‘29 for Sound Kollectiv’s invaluable support.
Finally, a surprise highlight of the evening was the bombshell puns dropped by band members while performing crowd work (stalling).
Why do they put barcodes on Norwegian ships?
So they can Scan-da-navy-in!
How many tries does it take to get an octopus to laugh?
Ten-tickles!
Where does bad light go?
Prism!