School of the Arts hosted its twice-a-year music event, Chico Unplugged. It took place on March 3 and on Tuesday at Madison Bear Garden. Many artists participated in this event to gain recognition and potentially win a free recording session.
The band Premonition is a four-person alt/progressive rock band of Chico State students. With Isaiah Phipps on the drums, Dillon Gard on guitar, Chelsea Chavez as lead singer and Kaya Şahin on bass, they performed at the March 3 show.
Premonition decided to perform at Chico Unplugged because Gard frequents Madison Bear Garden. Chavez said the event seemed like a nice, intimate moment, so they decided to attend.
At the show Tuesday show, eight artists performed their sets with an average of two songs. Solo artists and bands performed at the event, drawing a crowd to witness the performers flourish on stage.
(Jazmine Gonzalez)
Graduated in 2016, Anthony Stefani shared his passion for music as a Chico State alumnus.
“I’ve always loved music ever since I was little. My mom was like a big music head, she was always playing music around the house, and I just kind of, subconsciously grew in me over the years,” Stefani said.
Despite Stefani graduating years ago, they still came out to support the music culture that Chico has to offer.
“I like the community,” Stefani said. “I think there’s a bunch of talented artists from Chico.”
With many artists coming together, there still had to be a winner in this competition, and that was Simon Burgess.
Recording arts student, Burgess, is in a band but decided to do Chico Unplugged solo “on a whim,” although he’s been coming to Chico Unplugged for four years.
“It created a community for me that I felt really at home, and I have been coming every year since, and I’m really glad to be giving back,” Burgess said.
Although he attended for fun, after winning, Burgess said how surprised he was to have won because the song was “half-assed and written in two days” as a class assignment.
Chico Unplugged is more than a music event for students and the community to enjoy. It provides a stepping stone for local artists to get their foot in the door with a low-stakes performance and gain experience with being booked and in front of a live audience.
Emilio Ceja can be reached at [email protected]
