Broken Blue Centerlight Rocks The Loft

By SARA BAHRAINI

For the musicians rocking out, College Night did not feature many college students in the audience.
But on Feb. 1, KC’s Music Alley did showcase three talented bands: Philip Uster and the House Floor, Sparky’s Flaw and Broken Blue Centerlight.
Philip Uster and the House Floor played the first set with Alex Tschan and Ryan Lee on vocals and guitar, Peter Schudzik on drums and Clay Violand on bass.
The band is simultaneously quiet and loud while experimenting with emo and dance rock. They’ve got dreamy-sounding vocals, innovative bass lines and a lot of energy.
Sparky’s Flaw took the stage, with Will Anderson on vocals, guitar and piano, Peter De Young on guitar, Alex Hargrave on bass, Kit French on saxophone and Jamie Scubblefield on drums.
Formed in 2002, the pop-punk/alternative band started playing together in high school in Charlottesville. “Sparky’s Flaw” come from a racehorse named Sparky who had a short leg.
Listed as influences, Jason Mraz and the Killers are both whom can be heard in their sound. The band had great chemistry with the audience who danced along.
Unfortuantely for Sparky’s Flaw, saxophonist French was drowned out by the other instruments. They may have sounded more instrumentally diverse had the sound set-up been more balanced.
But with their catchy beats and relateable lyrics, Sparky’s Flaw seemed to be the most popular with the audience that night.
“It’s tough to balance, but we love playing music…in terms of rehearsals, it’s hard but the shows make it worth it,” Anderson said.
Broken Blue Centerlight performed last. The UMW-based band consists of JK Thompson on guitar, Albert Mirzoyan on drums, Dave Glover on guitar and vocals, Ross Berge on synthesizer and Jamie Moynihan on vocals and bass.
Crammed in Russell Hall, the band formed their freshmen year. Broken Blue Centerlight got its name from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” from a passage that reads, “…You see the blue center light pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’“
Their influences hail from a variety of genres, including pop-rock, indie and alternative. With their sound best described as a chaotic blast of emo and alternative rock, Broken Blue Centerlight was definitely the loudest of the three bands. Often times the lead singer would get entirely drowned out by the instruments, but all the members seemed to have a passion for playing music.