When The Academy Is… took the stage Tuesday night, there were two stars: William Beckett, the lead singer of the alternative rock band, and his hair.

Sporting long, dangling bangs, the front man whipped his hair around with a ferocity that only helped captivate an already mesmerized fan base.

The Academy Is…, along with opening bands Fazeshift and Hot Chelle Rae, seemed to light a fire underneath the audience at Bandersnatch’s latest musical offering in Schine Underground. As soon as the first chord was struck, nobody seemed to stand still.

‘I think The Academy Is… is perfect for this kind of setting,’ said Christine Robertson, a senior magazine journalism major. ‘They’re not a huge name, and I think they like to have performances that are at more intimate venues.’

The Academy Is… certainly seemed in their element before a crowd that barely filled half of the Underground. After teasing the crowd by dimming the lights and playing a recorded opening salvo on the trumpet over the speakers, the main attraction took the stage to an anxious crowd.

Of course, The Academy Is… would not have had such an excited crowd if it were not for the two blazing performances that preceded the band. Fazeshift, a local Syracuse band, warmed up a relatively small crowd by playing a new song, ‘Make Up Your Mind,’ which sported a catchy beat with powerful percussions.

Setting the tone for the impending night of interaction between artists and fans, Fazeshift asked everyone to put their arms around one another and sway back and forth during their songs. ‘Gotta show some love,’ said the band’s lead singer Joey Bolognone, a Syracuse native.

Hot Chelle Rae promptly took the stage after Fazeshift, offering a much cleaner, mainstream sound while still catering to alternative rock fans with songs from their debut album, ‘Lovesick Electric.’ Hot Chelle Rae had fun with the audience as well, telling everyone to repeat the verses ‘Anywhere, I don’t care, take me there’ whenever the cue was repeated.

‘I think it was great. The opening was filled with names I’d never heard, but the crowd loved it and the crowd was singing along,’ said University Union President Dan Goldberg. ‘There was definitely a nice flow. I think in some shows there’s no connection between the artists, but there seemed to be a really nice flow.’

Despite strong performances from the opening acts, once The Academy Is… took the stage, the band proved why it was the main act. Easily the most energetic of the night, the headline band bounced around the stage almost as much as the crowd beneath them.

Beckett whipped through the band’s set list at a breakneck pace, bolting, bounding and bouncing his way around the crowd as the band played ‘Attention’ and ‘About a Girl.’ Sometimes the lead singer would get so excited he would pretend to smack himself in the face.

Beckett would get hands-on with the rhythmic crowd, urging them to wave their hands in the air to the tempo of the music.

At one point, Beckett, brushing his draped hair from his face, asked the audience how many people had seen The Academy Is… before and how many were there for the first time. A majority of the hands raised were for returning patrons, but Beckett was still thrilled to see fresh faces. ‘Welcome to the club, my friends,’ he said joking before the crowd. ‘Tonight you’re the MVPs.’

After the brief slow-down, the band pushed back down on the accelerator all the way to end. With a final flick of his sweat-mopped bangs, Beckett threw the microphone down and waltzed off the stage.

‘They were so good. This was the best time I’ve ever seen them,’ said Emily Fasel, a sophomore supply chain management major. ‘The smaller venue made it better. There was more crowd interaction, and it’s more intimate.’

ansteinb@syr.edu

Published on November 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm