By Erin Oliveri

A diverse crowd of students, from hippies to hipsters, gathered closely around the afterHOURS stage Friday night for an intimate concert by Barefoot Truth and Sunish Oturkar.

Kappa Sigma fraternity presented the concert featuring Connecticut-based acoustic folk band Barefoot Truth. Oturkar, a junior electrical and computer engineering major, and his keyboard, opened for the band.

Oturkar kicked off his 45-minute set with a slow love ballad titled “Tenfold,” that included intense piano interludes.

He played many of his own songs, but covered some popular songs like “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Wonderwall” by Oasis.

The pianist, who is also the founder of Northeastern’s Darfur awareness group, NUSTAND, brought up the genocide in Darfur many times. Some of his songs, like “Never Again,” were written about it. The song included powerful lyrics about the genocide-“How many more must die?” he sang.

The set concluded with a strictly instrumental song, “Tsunami,” which Oturkar said he closes every performance with. Before exiting, he told everyone to stand up and get ready for Barefoot Truth to take the stage.

Four eclecticly-dressed young men, known as Barefoot Truth, performed after Oturkar. Three were on guitars and one on drums.

The quartet immediately started playing its first number, “Dancin’ in the Trees.” The song featured heavy acoustics and harmonica playing, and resembled the sounds of bands like Sister Hazel and Dave Matthews Band.

Barefoot Truth produced diverse sounds ranging from reggae to country. One song, titled “Changes in the Weather,” included an upright bass, adding yet another instrument to create alternative melodies.

At several points during the show, audience members were jumping up and down and dancing. Unexpectedly, Barefoot Truth did a rendition of the popular ’90s song “No Diggity” by Blackstreet mid-set, and the “Charlie Brown” theme song at the close.

After playing for more than an hour and singing more than 10 songs, Barefoot Truth had the crowd chanting “One more song!” when they walked off the stage.

Gary Marinelli, public relations chair for Kappa Sigma, said the fraternity brought Barefoot Truth because the band already has an established following and they knew the concert would appeal to many students.

“We want everyone to have fun, enjoy the music and have a great night,” Marinelli said in an e-mail to The News.

Marinelli also said that adding Oturkar to the ticket was a solid addition because he is a student at the university.

“Kappa Sigma loves to support our own Huskies,” he said.

Oturkar said he enjoys playing at afterHOURS and has performed there on several occasions.

“AfterHOURS is a cool place to play,” Oturkar said. “It’s always a good time.”

Many students who went to the performance were already Barefoot Truth fans who came to jam to the music.

Adam Comolli, a sophomore business major, said he really enjoys Barefoot Truth and thinks the band’s music is different.

“It’s a good style of music,” he said.

Jon Neuman, a sophomore music industry major, said he owns the Barefoot Truth CD and would definitely see the band in concert again.

“I like Barefoot Truth a lot,” he said. “I’m going through a jam band phase.”