Audience members were serenaded with acoustic sets by Hit The Lights and Paper States in the Rathskeller on Friday, April 11.
The show opened with the pop punk unit from Pittsburgh, Pa., Paper States. Ryan Stack and Mike Desmond, both on guitar and vocals, made their debut at the College playing songs off their 2012 EP “Be Alone.”
They performed “Day Spins,” “Be Alone,” “Old Soul” and a song they have not even recorded yet from their upcoming release “Old Fashioned,” which highlighted their slow and soft sound.
The audience especially perked up when Stack crooned about “surviving the semester” in one of his songs.
Stack and Desmond seemed to strum in perfect unison as they did a cover of Taking Back Sunday’s “Decade Under The Influence.”
“If you guys see Major League next week, tell them they suck,” Desmond teased about his close friends.
A music video for their song “Aim To Please” is on YouTube.
Next up was the pop rock band Hit The Lights from Lima, Ohio.
Normally comprised of five members, Nick Thompson was the sole representation on stage, while his bandmates hung out in the back of the Rat and cheered him on.
Everyone sang along as Thompson played the songs “Liars and Cheats,” “Speakers Blown” and “Stay Out” from their 2008 album “Skip School, Start Fights” and 2006 album “This Is a Stick Up … Don’t Make It a Murder.”
He also played “Fragile Eyes,” a song about his sister who was in a coma. She eventually came out of it and graduated from college. Thompson said the song is about being scared of never being able to talk to someone you love again.
In late May of this upcoming summer, Hit The Lights will go on the “Skip School, Start Fights Tour” with Major League, Light Years, Brigades and July.
The band, who took a short break while deciding what direction they wanted to go in, will come out with a brand-new record this summer on a to-be-announced record label.
At one point, Thompson told the crowd that he spent $25 to get his guitar case to New Jersey. Unfortunately, when it arrived, he realized he had left his guitar at home and the case was empty, leaving him to have to borrow someone else’s guitar.
Hit The Lights state their musical influences as New Found Glory, All Time Low and Four Year Strong.
Make sure to come out to the Rat next Friday, April 18, to support a student band at the College, Save Face.
