By Chelsea Pellissier
Students took in an unusual mix of entertainment at afterHOURS Tuesday: soaring vocals, intense lyricism and a flying, glowing statue of Jesus.
The evening featured performances by junior engineering major Sunish Oturkar, Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys and Boston-based HUMANWINE. The crowd was small, but energetic.
Oturkar, founder of the Northeastern chapter of the anti-genocide organization STAND, started the evening with a performance on keyboard with vocals. After beginning his set with an original song, he moved on to a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
The strongest part of Oturkar’s set was “Never Again,” concerning the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan. He concluded his set with “Tsunami,” a crowd favorite.
Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys then took the stage. Sickert and bandmate Edrie, who was wearing a bustier and garter belt, played more experimental fare, including in their performance a toy clapping monkey and a “song for George Bush’s funeral.”
Sickert attended to a synthesizer as well as guitar and vocals while Edrie played a number of broken toys. At one point, Edrie tossed a glowing plastic statue of Jesus into the audience and ended the set by getting personal with a few audience members and a toy accordion.
Some attendees said they were confused by Edrie’s antics.
“I thought she was going to kill someone when she threw the glowing Jesus statue,” said Emerson College student Kelly Kirkbride, who said she was there to see HUMANWINE’s set.
Tuesday’s performance was the third for HUMANWINE at afterHOURS. Darren Spector, concert chair for the Council for University Programs, called the band “a lot of something different” and said HUMANWINE is known for its live shows.
The band members were eager to return. Co-creators Holly Brewer and M@ McNiss, both on vocals and guitar, said they “loved the dynamics” at afterHOURS but wished it could be more open to the public, as the smaller acts draw few students.
Joining Brewer and McNiss on percussion was Nate Greenslit. HUMANWINE often interchange instrumentalists like Greenslit to create what Brewer called a “different lineup each show.”
Greenslit used pots and buckets to add an unusual sound. Brewer’s vocals were powerful and matched the carnival gypsy-like sound of McNiss’s guitar.
The two also exchanged comedic banter between songs, Brewer joked about how the sound was right in key, and titled her next song “Venti,” in honor of the Starbucks located in afterHOURS.
“Intoxicated” and “Drugs” were among the more popular songs. Also included in the set was what Brewer called, “A happy song about buying so many things you drown yourself,” and a country remix of an original song, dedicated to a nameless country music hater.
Sophomore English major Rachel Sherman commented on the band’s sound.
“It’s good that they took traditional music and made it more modern,” she said.
