The whole room was ready as the clock inched toward 11 p.m.. It was a Tuesday night, but no one at The ’Sco seemed to care. The line between the post-midterms grace period and pre-finals panic was starting to blur; Racing Mount Pleasant was exactly what Oberlin students needed to take the edge off.
Our much-beloved student band, Sloth, had primed the audience to have high expectations with a lively but centered set of straight rock and easeful indie. They were the perfect opener for the show. The headliners presented an unexpected jump in size alone, boasting a whopping seven members with Sam DuBose on lead guitar and vocals, Kaysen Chown on violin and guitar, Tyler Thenstedt on bass and vocals, Casey Cheatham on drums and vocals, Callum Roberts on trumpet and guitar, Conor Hoyt on alto sax, and Samuel Uribe Botero on tenor sax.
The Michigan-based indie group has released two studio albums to date: Grip Your Fist, I’m Heaven Bound in 2022 and Racing Mount Pleasant in August of this past year. Like many groups that catch the eyes and ears of regular ’Sco attendees, the band combines a unique spread of genres — from jazz to folk to chamber pop. A true understanding of their capabilities and style is helped by an intimate listen at a hole-in-the-wall venue. And that’s exactly what the audience was equipped for on the evening of Nov. 18.
With barely so much as a nod to the audience, they ripped right into an intro riff followed by their first song: the fourth track off their most recent album. “Emily” had perhaps a bit more energy bubbling beneath it than it does on the record, but it still felt like a soft warmup for what was to be a headbanging, full-body-rocking set. Chown started the whole thing off with light plucking on the violin coupled by DuBose on electric guitar, and by the time his vocals joined, it seemed as if the whole show could’ve been just them together. But one could hardly argue against the necessity of Hoyt and Botero’s colorful additions as they eased into the harmonies. It felt as though everyone knew exactly when and where to step in and, maybe more impressively, when to step back. This held true throughout the course of the evening — just when you thought the group had surely delivered enough, in came a horn or a solo bass line. Yet everything was just so: nothing was overstated.
As the crowd listened to the music, the room was packed and the air tasted like beer. The most anyone could really move was a few inches side to side (that is, without starting what would have been a slightly out-of-place pit). Students swayed back and forth, letting the folk-rock pick up in intensity and then mellow out their movements as the night went on. Perhaps the most impressive element of this set was each musician’s ability to master their dynamics within such a packed and varied ensemble. Even with the somewhat limited audio capacity that The ’Sco always runs into issues with, the band was completely in-sync each time they slightly shifted or sustained their sound. DuBose leaned on the slow build of strings, only to let out the raspy phrases of a final, exasperated chorus and let Hoyt and Botero echo direct melodic responses of frustration and longing.
At points when it seemed the band could go no further, they would switch up their sound completely. Chown swapped out the violin for an acoustic guitar on “You” and “You Pt. 2,” back-to-back sister songs that allowed for a soft rest after the high intensity of the previous songs before falling into supporting vocals that the audience could hardly resist joining in on. These songs’ lyrics rely on the stream-of-consciousness feelings of a particular moment and the memories of a person who can go or stay however they choose to. Soft, waxing and waning instrumentals allowed for just enough quiet contemplation while also reminding the listener of the desperation and uncertainty behind them. Each sax-led swell preempted an “I’ll fall back into you” toward the very end. It felt as if repeating the mantra enough would somehow make the sentiment a reality.
“Racing Mount Pleasant” came just a few songs before they said their farewells. This one was certainly a pick-me-up for the crowd, and the rock-distortion vibe gave the drums a chance to shine thorough. The full band joined in on every, “I don’t know the reason why / I can’t meet your eye / It’s all coming down on me / Can’t we stay inside,” of the chorus, much to the excitement of the audience. The higher vocals on these chant-like lines seemed to be tapping into a somewhat less-explored but incredible feature of the band’s expressive range. The slight siren-like inflections Cheatham added, echoing from behind the drumset on “You Pt. 2,” came back, just shining through on an otherwise action-packed track.
By the end of the night, the ’Sco attendees were exhausted but satisfied with their mid-week break. Many stayed after, huddling around the merch table or just excited to talk to the performers about their setup and mastery of the stage. The strobes were still twinkling blue, and the slight humming in everyone’s ears was a welcome sendoff into the cold night outside.
