A Blast From Goucher’s Independent Music Club Past And Present
by River Rowe
On December 2, students, family, friends, and fans gradually gathered in the Haebler Chapel Undercroft for the Goucher Independent Music Club’s (IMC) final concert of the semester. The show featured performances from the Goucher solo act, David Einhorn, the debut Goucher band, All the King’s Horses, returning solo artist Iven, and Maryland-based shoegaze group, Heaven’s Gate. As IMC’s fifth and final show of the semester, and ninth show since returning from virtual learning, highly anticipated performances by new band All the King’s Horses and three-time IMC artist, Iven, made for an excellent close to the semester.
The Goucher Independent music club, first formed in 2017, has organized Undercroft shows for longer than the current Goucher community can remember, providing Goucher students (free) and others (for $5 at the door) the experience of seeing local and touring independent artists on their home campus. The Undercroft, a classroom-sized room in the basement of Goucher’s Haebler Memorial Chapel, has hosted the musical talent of numerous East-Coast-based bands within the intimate and charmingly cramped space.
Prior to the pandemic, IMC audiences could expect a wide arrange of emotions and experiences at every show: from mini mosh pits and high-energy punk/metal/alternative performances to lighter-wielding and entrancing story-time-esque serenades. Now under new leadership, in the early days of returning to Goucher, the IMC took a few months to get back to its previous reputation, but after a couple semesters, the shows are back and better than ever.
On Friday, the Undercroft doors opened at 7 p.m. as band members warmed up and checked that all their equipment was in place. Spectators slowly trickled into the space, accumulating around thirty audience members by the start of the first set.
Following the first set, audience members socialized or went outside as usual, returning to the Undercroft when All the King’s Horses member, Nick Jackson, took the mic to introduce the band. Comprised of four Goucher seniors performing together for the first time, the band features Elie Siegal (bass/drums/vocals), Nick Jackson (guitar/bass/vocals), Jandro Clemente (piano/vocals), and Omar Sass (keys/vocals). Despite playing and producing music together in the past, the four members had never performed in a show together, and many hadn’t performed at all in several years.
“It felt like the beginning of a roller coaster,” Jandro explained. “Like, I love going on roller coasters. And they’re so fun when I’m on it. But then the lead-up before it, my imagination just gets the best of me and it’s super nerve-wracking. And so it was really, really fun but I definitely had I think way more nerves about this performance than some of my other ones.”
All The King’s Horses Extended Interview
When planning their set, each member chose two songs, then they listened through them to eliminate what wouldn’t work. In the end, they eliminated two songs (“Fruit Salad” by The Wiggles and “Dear Simone” by Jacob Banks) and switched one cover. The set list the band finalized was “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” by Nirvana, “Jerry Woke Up Today” by Nick Jackson, “Shitlist” by L7, “Strictly Conversational” by Omar Sass, “Hurt” by Johnny Cash, and “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams.
“This is our first time ever doing it together. And it’s our first time ever, like setting it up independently,” said Nick, previous member of the former Goucher band, Welsh Commons. “We’ve played so much music with each other already that it kind of came naturally, so we just had to do the planning and then it all fell into place.”
With all members having a vast experience with music since early childhood, they were able to work with the songs technically to best utilize their strengths and to produce a unique version of both original songs and those that others may have heard before. “It was a lot of fun to mess around with and like create our own styles and spins on the songs,” Jandro explained, “especially for songs like ‘Hurt,’ which is a cover of a cover.”
During their performance, the crowd wasn’t still for a moment as they shifted through genre after genre, switching instruments and styles with every song. It was a lot of firsts for everyone: Nick and Omar were excited by hearing their original songs being played by a group for the first time; Elie excellently executed vocals and rapping while simultaneously drumming; and most of them rapped in front of people for the very first time. Through their set, audience members danced, moshed, and sang along to well-known songs such as “Frances,” “Hurt,” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, while the band ripped off their shirts and immersed themselves in the performance. When everything came together, the band was very happy with what they had accomplished.
“The crowd felt pretty enveloped in it,” said Omar, “and the energy was good.”
“It was a very nice-feeling space to play,” added Nick. “It felt very welcoming.”
After another brief social intermission, the audience was again drawn back by Nashville-based acoustic folk artist, Iven opening his first song, “On This Roof,” with a sorrowful outstretched moan. As the audience filtered in, they sat around him on the floor, elementary-school story-time-style, and watched in awe as his voice flooded the room.
Also playing music since early childhood, Iven (Isaac Q. Horton) began releasing music under this name in 2018, launching his first tour in 2019. Prior to this show, Isaac had performed at Goucher twice before, once in 2019 and another just before the pandemic in 2020, and has been long beloved by IMC frequenters. Over this period of time, Isaac has released two albums: Eight New Songs (2019) and Iven in 2k21 (2022). After primarily releasing music virtually for almost three years, his third show at Goucher featured mostly songs off of Eight New Songs, such as “On This Roof,” “It Had You,” and “My Pretty Face,” as well as two new songs: “What if We Moved Like That,” and “Pastries.”
“This is my first one since the pandemic started. I got back from tour and then it was like three weeks later pandemic hit,” explained Isaac. “It’s terrifying. It feels really good. I’m very nervous. It’s just I haven’t played a ton of shows in general, since the pandemic. When I come to Goucher, it’s like, pretty much if anybody does know me here, they pretty much only know me for my music, which is a different kind of feeling, I guess. Getting in front of people.”
“For a while there, I just like kind of entirely lost touch with it,” Isaac said of his relationship to music during the pandemic. “And so it was like, just for like a myriad of reasons, music became less and less a part of my everyday life and in for a while there, I even stopped listening to music. I had really bad writer’s block and I was getting frustrated.”
When asked about art’s relationship to ‘productivity,’ Isaac laughed. “There is a relationship to making music for passion and then the idea of, ‘It’d be nice if I could eat and not, you know, work at the mud factory.’ I became frustrated with myself for not being able to finish a project instead of being excited by the act of creation. And so I totally stopped doing any sort of music for a while. The past six months, I’ve been trying to crawl back into that. I’m very excited about tonight, to be able to share something in a way that hopefully, you know, feels good.”
One of Isaac’s greatest skills is connecting to his audience, not only through his music but also through the way he interacts with them. After three years, he’s finally back in front of people, sharing his soulful sound and choked-up lyrics to a peaceful crowd. As he had done at his last Goucher show, Isaac concluded his performance by thanking the crowd and promoting the “Christmas Day”-scented candles his mom made, selling merch and conversating as Heaven’s Gate prepared for their set.
“What I really like to do is playing music in front of people is a very cathartic and intense experience for me,” shared Isaac, ‘and I’d like that to be something shared rather than something presented. It takes a little bit away from that barrier of the musician-audience divide.”
