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On Thursday nights, Syracuse University students pool outside of the Cage, swaying to electronic dance music and forgetting the worries of the week. Most Fridays, students file out of their dorm rooms and onto Euclid Avenue, headed toward the house with the red torii gate that’s playing live music.

On Saturdays, Crater entertains students with alternative and rock bands. Of course, Sage Haus and Thornden Underground are part of the rotation adding their musical vibe, too.

The paced-out schedule of these shows is no coincidence. These student-run music venues are connected through more than just a shared love of the arts.

“It’s one big community of friends,” Troy Conner, a junior and member of the Cage Collective, said. “We all know each other.”

Last summer, Romy VanAlmen and Anjali Engstrom made a shared Google document with all the other students who run house show venues at SU. The Bandier Program students had seen their upperclassmen friends organize joint schedules when they led the venues.

Now, running their own venue as juniors, the two wanted to continue the tradition.

Each house venue adds their planned shows for the year to the document to prevent overbooking artists, and so that students don’t have to choose between similar shows. Shows that do overlap are usually intentional, as they cater to different audiences.

“We see this great diverse scene for what it is and we pick our favorite bits of it,” Oliver McKay, a Bandier junior and member of Crater, said.

In his freshman year, Conner said he met many Dazed members on his floor in Brockway Hall. This proximity quickly turned into friendship. When the groups realized they would both be running venues in their junior year, it only seemed natural to work together.

Ilan Rekem, a sophomore, added his own energy to the music scene when he created The Shipyard, one of the only venues on South Campus. While visiting his brother in Boston at Berklee College of Music, Rekem saw intimate, laid-back music venues. He wanted to emulate this on SU’s campus, so he started The Shipyard as a space for people who struggle with anxiety or want a change of pace.

Lars Jendruschewitz | Photo Editor

In an intimate setting, an artist performs at The Shipyard, a South Campus music venue.

Rekem plans to work with Crater after seeing a crater-like mountain on South Campus. He wants to create a mix of calm music with some of Crater’s signature sounds to complete the night.

Recently, the venue owners have been relying on each other more than ever, as police have shut down some shows.

When police shut down a Dazed show one night because of what house members speculated were neighborhood complaints, Keith Kuss agreed to continue the show at Thornden Underground. From that night alone, Kuss amassed 500 new Instagram followers.

“We all try to promote each other and help each other out,” Samara Vachani, a member of Dazed, said. “They post, repost our parties, we repost theirs.”

This momentum allowed Thornden Underground to host more annual shows like Rave at the Rocks. The rave, a major show they’ve done for the past two years and hope to continue, takes place on South Campus. Conner helps Kuss set up for the event and the two share equipment.

Venues still take preventative measures to ensure students’ safety above all else.

“We want to create a community that everyone comes back to and knows it’s a safe but enjoyable place,” Josh Chun, another member of Cage Collective, said.

Being careful to respect neighbors is also important for the student venue owners. McKay and Powers decided to bake for their neighbors before one of their shows.

“It was just a preemptive ‘Sorry, this could be kind of loud,’ kind of thing,” McKay said.

Conner and Chun slipped notes under their housemates’ doors to let them know about their upcoming Halloween show.

Courtesy of Colin Hulme

Under orange and red colored lights, a DJ plays at the Cage, blasting electronic dance music out to the crowd.

One senior, Ania Kapllani, has hosted a joint event called Spook Jam with other venues for the past two years. Though she originally hosted it at Westcott Theater, Kapllani turned to the student venues for partnerships because they were more accessible and less costly, she said.

Last year, she partnered with the Cage. This year, she worked with Crater and Sigma Alpha Mu. Kapllani knew Crater members from their work with Saint Luke and GUNK!, who she manages.

“I liked the idea of collaboration because it pulls all sorts of different demographics of people that maybe the music scene at SU doesn’t tap into,” Kapllani said.

Kapllani worked to ensure all aspects of Spook Jam ran smoothly. Balancing managing musicians, performing with GUNK! and putting on her own shows takes significant organizing and advance planning, she said.

As most venue owners are musicians themselves, they can relate.

McKay and Powers are both in a band called The Local News, like Engstrom, who’s in the band Luna and the Carpets which has performed at Dazed. Samara Vachani, a member of Dazed, DJs at the Cage, while Kuss DJs under the LATEX brand. Kieran Romano, another Dazed member, and Chun are both classically trained musicians.

The musicians said their talents help them run their venues. When he does soundchecks before shows, Romano is better equipped to tell what sounds good and what doesn’t.

Courtesy of Dazed

A band performs at Dazed with the striking red logo behind them, singing and playing music to a crowd of friends and strangers.

“Being a musician and having a vision, it never comes out exactly how you expect it to,” Kuss said. “That’s the same for an event, you always got to be ready to change it up on the fly.”

Beyond getting performers from other venues, the venues also have a pull for musicians from outside Syracuse. Buff Chick, a 2022 SU graduate, performed at this year’s Spook Jam. The previous owners of Dazed, then known as Redgate, hosted DJ Lucas and Laundry Day to perform.

Thornden Underground, which tries to emulate a New York City club scene, likes to book musicians from that region. They’ve reached out to musicians who performed at Trans-Pecos in Brooklyn, specifically.

The outside influences on the music scene at SU show the venues’ reach and solidifies their legitimacy, Kapllani said.

As the music scene continues to evolve, with new venues coming in and old ones retiring, student owners continue to work together and bond over the tensions of running a venue.

Knowing anything could go wrong in an instant, but holding it all together, brings everyone together and creates a community, Rekem said.

“The students run the music scene. There’s no outside power, nobody has a hand in this but us,” Kapllani said. “We cultivate this and create this.”

Published on November 14, 2024 at 1:07 am