The University of Rhode Island’s 193 Coffeehouse came alive once again on Thursday, Feb. 29 during their special leap day band night.
Streams of students flooded the small coffeehouse where the floor had been opened up into what would become a mosh pit later that night. Students crowded the floor, couches and stood atop the windowsills of 193, waiting for the night’s first band to take the stage. The lineup was composed of URI student bands Fermat, Morning Shower and Rose Tint.
Green lights were pointed at the end of the room, which had been converted to a makeshift stage when Fermat came out. The band was composed of second-year guitarist and backup vocalist Peter Tolmei, third-year drummer Logan McCue, third -year guitarist Gus Bienenfeld, first-year lead vocalist Tommy Cox and third-year bassist Julien Turner.
As they opened the night with their original song “Call of Cthulhu,” Fermat was immediately greeted with an enthusiastic and energetic audience.
“I thought this was the most pumped crowd that I’ve seen at the coffeehouse in probably my whole time at URI,” Tolmei said after the show. “I thought every performance was absolutely amazing. As a musician especially, I couldn’t sense a single thing that went wrong.”
Following their opener, Fermat played an interlude before jumping into covers of “Work this Time” by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Peach Pit’s “Psychics in LA” and “Surf’s Up” by the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.
Fermat focuses on combining thrash with a psychedelic sound, taking inspiration from some of the bands they cover as well as Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, according to Tolmei.
After their covers, the band played the first original song they created, “Last Theorem,” before closing with a performance of Tyler the Creator’s “New Magic Wand,” rapped by Turner. The mosh pit turned it up a notch in energy with this performance, and students across the room rapped right along with Turner.
The stage was shortly reoccupied again after Fermat’s exit by the second band of the night, Morning Shower.
It was Morning Shower’s debut performance in 193, and the band brought a more emo and pop-punk sound to the stage, according to second-year drummer Sam Riccio. Along with Riccio, the band was composed of second-years Thomas Missirlis on guitar and Peter LeBeau on bass. Their vocalist, second-year David Santana, wasn’t present at the show as he was in URI’s student theatre performance of “Macbeth.”
The band opened their performance with their title original track “Morning Shower,” followed by covers of “Girl Scout Cookies” by Mom Jeans. and Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” For the latter performance, third-year bassist Jack Cox from Rose Tint joined in to perform vocals, during which the crowd sang along as an audience member crowd surfed.
Following this, Morning Shower gave a cover of “Whatsername” by Green Day. They then closed their performance off with four original songs: “No Swimming,” “Maple Lane,” “Plumbing” and “Sposie.”
Despite it being their first coffeehouse performance, Morning Shower shared the same positive sentiment about the night’s turnout as Fermat post performance.
“We were so happy with how the crowd really engaged with us, [it was] really energetic,” Riccio said.
Following Morning Shower’s performance, Rose Tint took to the stage as the closing act of the night. Along with Cox, Rose Tint is composed of second-years Ryan Baudisch, Victor Paulino and Eli Lauzon-Ardito. For this performance, Paulino and Cox swapped between bass and guitar, and drums were performed by Lauzon-Ardito. Baudisch was also on guitar and split vocals with Paulino.
It was the band’s third performance at URI, and the date marked their roughly one-year anniversary of their first official practice as a band, according to Cox. Cox said that the band’s sound has changed over their time together, but they now follow a shoegaze inspired sound.
“It’s such a safe space for that kind of music and art scene to flourish, especially at a big state school where you wouldn’t expect that,” Cox said, this being his first show back with the band since his semester abroad in the fall.
The band opened their performance with five original songs: “Stranger,” “Closing Lines,” “Eyes,” “Lips” and “Say It to my Face.” Following this, they covered “Pallet Town” by Free Throw and “No Stylist” by Destroy Lonely.
Rose Tint chose to close the night with a cover of Coldplay’s hit track “Yellow.” The crowd joined together in raising their arms in the air to sway along to the melody in an emotional close to the night.
Having been a band for a while now, Rose Tint is not planning on stopping their momentum, according to Cox. They are going to release a new song this semester and have more shows lined up both inside and outside of URI.
193 Coffeehouse’s next band night will be after break on March 21. The bands from this week’s performances can be found on instagram @fermatmusic, @morningshowerr and @rosetintri.