Gazing around the room, there was a sense of good vibes pulsating in the atmosphere as live music blared from the speakers and attendees danced in support of a good cause.
The Chico State Audio Engineering Society, put on quite an interesting fundraiser Thursday night at the 1078 Gallery that featured performances from local band Dear Misguided and the music collective group from San Luis Obispo, WordSauce.
Rather than the business side of music, the AES Chico State Chapter is an organization of students focused on the technical side of the music industry with emphasis on recording and audio engineering.
“Most of what we do is behind the scenes of the music industry,” said Aaron Nakaji, president of of the society and senior recording arts major. “Related to the recording arts program, AES provides workshops that are key to the music industry such as soldering, mixing, and mastering.”
The goal of the fundraiser was to raise money to attend the Audio Engineering Society convention in Los Angeles. The proceeds will help fund a trip that Audio Engineering Society has planned in the fall semester.
“It is a big event for the organization and also opens up the opportunity to have the chance to visit some of the larger music studios as well,” Nakaji said.
For three hours, the 1078 Gallery was rocking as both bands gave a great performance in support of the fundraiser.
Local band Dear Misguided opened the night up with an exciting hour set that showcased their musical talents with influences of a pop, punk style of rock.
Along with performing original tracks from their upcoming EP, Dear Misguided was able to entice the crowd early on with a few cover songs from the English Rock bands Bastille and Mumford and Sons. They closed their set out with the song “Keep it to Yourself” which only got the event supporters more amped for the main act.
After intermission and refreshments, the venue was at its highest occupancy of the night as the crowd awaited to hear closing act WordSauce. The group consisted of a variety of musicians that included two MC’s, a disc jockey, drummer, saxophonist and three guitarists. The musical collective was a diverse group of musicians that could only be described as a musical genre chimera of hip hop, funk and rock.
For two hours, the 1078 Gallery audience danced and grooved as WordSauce delivered a fantastic performance that encompassed songs of rap, reggae, punk rock, funk and jazz influences.
The collective did an amazing job of always finding a way to keep the crowd incorporated via singing, an impromptu crowd freestyle or getting hyped to a much requested saxophone solo. The MC’s were even able to make the crowd chuckle as they joked about the performance becoming more of a cardio workout for them.
For a small venue, WordSauce was able to successfully put on an enticing show that contributed to the AES fundraiser in a positive fashion. The highlight of their set occurred during the song “Move Around,” in which a group of about 25 fans all jumped around in front of the performers as if they had just heard a Naughty by Nature classic.
Overall, the AES did a fantastic job of organizing the fundraiser and its success can be attributed to the display of musical talent throughout the night and the hard work that AES did to spread word of the event.
104 people showed up for the event, said said Robert Fraser, senior officer for the Audio Engineering Society.
“It was a great turnout and we even received more people than expected,” Fraser said Frasery. “This has been the biggest event AES has done all year and a lot of work went into the success of this fundraiser thanks to many of the AES members and music industry majors.”
Michael Quiring can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.
