As the fall season arrives, the University of Rhode Island’s Musician’s Guild prepares themselves for their annual Halloweenapalooza concert to provide exposure for musicians.
The Musician’s Guild puts up shows for local bands around Rhode Island in order to help spread local music. This year they have managed to get three acts to play at next Friday night’s show, including From Below from New York, The Gray Company from New Jersey and the solo act Big Money: The Ryan Collins Experience.
From Below are a small, garage-progressive rock band from New York City. Cero Cartera is on vocals and guitar, Tom Hoy is the lead guitar, Chika Obiora is on bass and Marc Pappalardo is on drums. From Below’s music captivates listeners with a raw and raspy sound of swirling, wailing guitar riffs and melodious vocals.
The Gray Company are an indie band from Union, New Jersey. Members include Zebeeb Awalom on vocals and guitar, Jason Fandino on guitar, Adrian Kabigting on bass and Joshua Howard on drums. The band dwells on soul and funk based tones accompanied by catchy lyrics and rich, canorous vocals.
URI’s very own Big Money: The Ryan Collins Experience is a one man emo, pop-punk act, which consist of the Musician’s Guild Secretary Ryan Collins on electric guitar and vocals. Collins is a currently a film major in his third year at URI.
Collins usually plays acoustic guitar in his songs, but he expects to change it up a bit this time with the electric guitar to give it a more forceful sound. He said he hopes to bring a “bigger sound” to this show’s performance.
“This time I’m playing songs that mean a lot more to me and I feel a lot better about,” Collins said. He plans on performing mostly original songs, but said he may play a cover or two if there is enough time. Big Money: The Ryan Collins Experience’s music mainly runs under the project title “Mail Culture.” All musical acts can be found on Bandcamp, a music sharing website.
Since next Friday is the Musician’s Guild first show of the semester, club members are welcoming anyone to attend free of charge and will offer Halloween treats. In addition, considering it’s a Halloween production, they will be holding a costume party before the show. Members said that they motivate people to come to the event by bringing costumes to add to the Halloween spirit of the show with various, fun costume ideas. Collins said there will be lots of candy for everyone to savor and celebrate with.
URI’s Musician’s Guild members said they are happy to meet anyone who wants to stop by and appreciate some good music and celebrate the Halloween season. Collins said the show will be a way to unite everyone through harmony, voice and lyrics, or, in other words, music. These bands travel a long way from their homes, so members encourage everyone to come to Halloweenapalooza to “give a good old Rhody welcome and get spooky.”
Doors open on Friday Oct. 23 at 6 p.m., and the show starts 7:30 p.m. in Atrium 1 of the Memorial Union.