By Sarah Keneipp, news correspondent

CRUISR and Soft Pyramids, two east-coast bands, kicked off the spring semester at afterHOURS with performances that brought warmer vibes to the chilly Northeastern campus.

To start the night off, Soft Pyramids, a Somerville-based band, brought indie rock sounds to Northeastern’s music venue. The audience welcomed them to the stage and laughed at their witty banter about performing next to Starbucks.

“It’s fun getting to the party with the barista. He’s dancing with the espresso over there,” said drummer Matthew Glover.

The band played songs to bop your head along to, like “Around This Town,” from their debut LP “Fossils of the Free World” and properly warmed up the audience for CRUISR.

The Council of University Programs (CUP) organized the show.

“[CRUISR] have a fun, beachy sound,” Caroline Rapta, CUP’s Spring Small Concert chair, said.

At the beginning of the academic year, CUP sent out a survey to Northeastern students to get idea of what kind of acts they would be interested in seeing.

“We have to have a gauge of what students want to see on campus,” Rapta said. “Once we have an idea of who we want to see, I reach out to their agent and take into account the budget for the semester.”

CRUISR and Soft Pyramids both fit the indie pop and alternative demographic, a genre that the majority of students who completed the survey preferred.

The main act, a Philadelphia-based band, is known for its feel-good beach rock. They previously opened for The 1975 during their 2014 North American Tour , and played at Firefly Music Festival the past two years.

As soon as the band stepped foot on stage, lead singer Andy States got the crowd dancing with tracks “Throw Shade” and “All Over.” The crowd sang along and clapped their hands to the beat.

“This is the song to all the people that treat you like trash, so let’s get rid of those people together,” States said of “Throw Shade.”

The main hook of the song, “If you wanna throw shade/I’m gonna throw you away,” achieves States’ goal of creating catchy tunes people want to dance to.

The band also played some older tunes they recorded but never released to the public.

“We bring back these songs for the people we think are special – you guys are special,” States said.

After the show, both bands stuck around at afterHOURS to mingle and take photographs with the fans.

“Thanks for turning up on a Tuesday,” States said.

Photo by Robert Smith