Campus Conversations

Not even the snow of Friday afternoon could stop the crowds from trudging through the slush to Jester’s first concert of the semester in Marsh House. Members of the band are Ethan Greene ’04 on bass, Nathan Shike ’03 on vocals and guitar, Jes Therkelsen ’02 on keyboard and Nick Wexler ’03 on drums. They played to a crowd of well over 100 students, drawn from the Five-College community as well as Springfield Technical Community College (STCC).

Band members and listeners alike had a fabulous time. “We had a lot of fun,” said Shike. “People were dancing and seemed to be enjoying themselves, and this year we didn’t have any noise complaints.”

For the second year in a row, the band played the theme song from the movie “Ghostbuster” and opened the show with a birthday tribute to Shike’s sister, Naomi.

The performance lasted well into the wee hours of the morning, as devoted fans danced and sang along to the Phish-inspired tunes. Newcomers were impressed by their original songs and covers alike.

“I thought they really put on a good show,” said Andrew Goldberg ’03. “It was a good change from the usual Amherst social scene. I’m glad the weather didn’t stop people from coming out.”

Jester’s performance was a Friday night must-see for music lovers of all tastes.

Saturday slump

Saturday night spelled social disaster. With TAP cancelled at 12:30, Amherst party-goers found themselves asleep in their beds at unusually early hours this past Saturday. A walk around campus at 2 A.M. found the campus dead and with most lights off.

When the DJ who had been providing our tried and true TAP music at Seelye walked out due to the extremely low attendence, students who had slowly begun to leave other parties for their traditional destination found that their beloved TAP was no more.

Granted, TAP is not the culminating apex of the average student’s Saturday night, but there was little to be found elsewhere. Other parties held across the campus, although numerous, proved to be even bleaker. The Chicana/o Caucus provided some of the best competition

for TAP with a DJ at the Campus Center. Eurotechno at Newport and a party in Stone were also well attended, which contributed to the barren wasteland at TAP. Dke’s and Dates was likewise packed until it was broken up by the town cops early on in the night.

“This past Saturday was the

earliest night I’ve had at Amherst when I’ve gone out,” said Robin Goldman ’03. “The night was lame. Hopefully we won’t be seeing any repeats in the near future.”

Even the off-campus social scene, which usually saves the bored and sober from a tediously uneventful Saturday night, offered no

possible solution to the seemingly endless line of social dearth. Parties and events both on and off-campus were so spread out and sparse as to ensure that party-goers never reached that key consensus at the end of the evening.

For the lucky few that were able to get into Smith’s annual pimps ‘n’ ho’s bash, Saturday night was well-worth the trek to Northampton. Even though Smith is on social probation and pimps ‘n’ ho’s was only advertised through word of mouth, the turn out was high. Arthur Lord ’03 preferred the Smith party to TAP on any night. “It was much better than TAP … It was ridiculous, and everyone was wearing interesting outfits.”

The Smith dorm was at maximum capacity for student occupancy which caused a fire alarm early on

in the night. But revelers did not turn away. According to Lord, “It was a long night of libido and

libation. It was a night of debauchery and excess and pretty Smith girls. It made Amherst parties look tame.”