Musician’s Guild holds “The Worst Christmas Ever”

The University of Rhode Island’s Musician’s Guild held a show this past Friday night titled “The Worst Christmas Ever!” with headliner artist Somos, an indie punk band from Boston.

To start, the show featured openers Southpier and Drunk Uncle. With a maximum capacity of 128 students, this was a small, intimate show in the Memorial Union’s Atrium, letting students embrace the music and surround themselves with fellow peers who have similar musical interests.

Southpier, a local pop punk band, took the stage first. With their high-energy front man, Erik Medeiros, the band riled up the crowd and prepared them for the exciting night ahead. Following next was Drunk Uncle, an emo band from Nashua, New Hampshire. The band stole the stage with their enticing music and entertained the crowd in between songs with their stories.

Finally, Somos started their set, opening up with a crowd favorite, “Familiar Theme”, the lead song off their 2014 release “Temple Of Plenty.” The band then proceeded to play a brand new song that was released Friday morning, titled “Alright, I’ll Wait.” This caused the crowd to burst with excitement, as they were the first audience to hear the new song live. Later in the show, front man Michael Fiorentino, who is a student at The University of Massachusetts Boston, described how he was impressed that the Musician’s Guild had successfully put together this show.

“We don’t have many shows like this at our school,” Fiorentino said. “We get big shows but never any smaller shows so this is really cool.”

Throughout the rest of the set, Somos played other popular songs such as “Lives of Others”, and “Dead Wrong”, which was the night’s closing song. With such a small, intimate setting, it was easy for students to talk with the bands before and after the show.

On Nov. 30, Somos announced that they have signed to Hopeless Records, an independent record label based in Van Nuys, California. Other bands on the label include The Wonder Years, All Time Low and Taking Back Sunday. Previously, Somos had worked with Tiny Engines, a record label in Charlotte, North Carolina, to release their debut album, and later was signed to No Sleep Records, where they released a split with punk band Have Mercy in early 2015.

The Musician’s Guild regularly promotes the local music scene with these shows, and the organization hopes to continue to increase the size of their events. President of the club, Jared Smith, said that “next year we want to go bigger”. Meetings for the Musician’s Guild are held every Monday at 5 p.m. in room 124 of the Memorial Union.

On Friday, Somos announced that they will be releasing a new album “First Day Back” on Feb. 19, 2016. Pre-orders are available on their “merchnow” website. In addition, Somos will be opening up for Bayside with Cheap Girls on Dec. 15 at The Met in Pawtucket. Tickets are $22 in advance, and $25 at the door. More information about this show can be found on The Met’s website at http://themetri.com/.