By Chelsie Derman
Arts & Entertainment Editor
With the sun beaming down and the music playing lively, WTSR 91.3 FM hosted its semi-annual WTSR Underground in a non-traditional way on Sept. 12 at 12 p.m.
“We haven’t ever done Underground like this. Normally we do it in the TV studio, and it’s more for the bands to get professional video recording of their sets, whereas this is the first time we’ve done it more of a concert,” said WTSR’s Music Director Julia Landi, a junior English major.
WTSR Underground mirrored a music festival. All guests relaxed on the AIMM Ellipse lawn or surrounding benches, some wearing masks, some not. Five performers (two soloists and three bands) made their way on the stage: Anthony Garcia, The Post Office, Goings, Hana Bryanne, and lastly, This HOLY Rodeo.
Recent College graduate Anthony Garcia started the afternoon strong with his soothing guitar playing and a lot of his original songs. His alternate music moved the audience.
“The first performance was really nice. I liked the atmosphere the song gave, very soft, slightly melancholic,” said Veronica Gomez, a freshman English major. “I liked the rustic sound of the music, the sound of the guitar and the front harmonica in that one performance.”
Garcia now works as a reporter at The Ocean Star, but making music remains a strong passion of his.
“My favorite part about performing is just getting to express myself on the stage,” Garcia said.
The Post Office came up next with music that had a different style than Garcia’s. The crowd
cheered him on, and their music fell under the funk rock genre. Before starting, The Post Office said this was their first time performing in front of a crowd. The Post Office announced they have an album coming out soon.
After that, the Philly-based band, Goings, made their way to the stage. Like The Post Office, their songs also fell under the rock genre.
Following Goings, singer/songwriter Hana Bryanne stepped onto the stage. She performed original songs with a Taylor Swift-esque vibe.
“I found [Hannah Bryanne] on TikTok actually,” Landi said when asked how she found all the artists who came to the event. “She has a song that’s good that she wrote that went viral, hundreds of thousands of views. And I was like, ‘she’s awesome,’ and I sent her an email, because I was like, ‘maybe she’s around the area.’”
Landi discovered Bryanne attends school in New York, so inviting the TikToker/musician worked out.
At the end, This HOLY Rodeo performed, the band using a bunch of guitars to liven up the crowd.
Nancy Bowne, WTSR’s program manager and a junior international studies major, shared a little bit about the behind-the-scenes in preparing for WTSR Underground.
“This year, especially with COVID and planning in advance, we didn’t really know if we could have people coming onto the stage and the studio,” said Bowne. “So we have an outside event. It’s cool because we’re able to have more people come out.”
According to Bowne, planning for WTSR Underground took about six months.
“We’ve had months of board meetings just kind of going over, ‘who’s going to do the merch table?’ Talking about, ‘can we do food?’ We usually had popcorn machines, but with COVID we can’t really do that… definitely a lot of moving parts, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Bowne said. Bowne added that WTSR also coordinates setting up interviews with all the bands.
WTSR Underground fall 2021 may have been unconventional — at least for the WTSR Underground tradition — but the event had a good turnout.
“I’m a huge music nerd so I love seeing people play live music,” Landi said. “Seeing the performances has been my favorite part.”
