Class Council and Giant Join Forces for a Morale-Boosting Show at Market Sqaure

BY TRICIA CALLAHAN

Market Square is a walk away from campus, so when a concert was held at this quaint, brick forum, a steady flurry of students piled in. Free food, free drinks, free music and a lot of advertising is what made this event so successful.

“We felt like it was a very great success,” said  Chelsea Devening, class council president of the class of 2010. “We were happy with the turnout of students and the fact that the weather held up throughout.”

The event as a whole was co-hosted by Giant Productions and Class Council while the food was bought from Papa Johns within the Class Council budget. Everything was leading up to the musical performances.

First to the stage was “Three Stream Giants,” which had an interesting compilation of musicians: two horns, a saxophone, drums, a keyboard and a singer. That singer happened to be Anthony Campbell, the winner of “Good Morning America’s” version of “American Idol,” and coincidentally a Fredericksburg native.
“The true tragedy is the disappearance of true funk music,” Campbell said to the crowd before one of the closing songs. When asked about how he feels about singing in a group as opposed to performing solo, he said that the group hides any flaws that he may have and vice versa.

The second act, Alex Mejias, played the guitar while backed by his band.

Mejias performed and talked about his song “You Know Best” in correlation with a fight he had with his girlfriend, and how he walked upstairs leaving on a bad note and later realized that she was completely right.

“I write about my faith and relationships,” Mejias said of the messages in his songs.

This was his first performance in Fredericksburg and he said he was happy with the results. With his chilled out lyrics and melodic tunes, the crowd felt the atmosphere as much as he did, breaking out into a clapping frenzy.

The third and most widely received band was “Junk Science,” who got its name from jargon used at an environmental non-profit camp that drummer Ben Marks attended. They started as a cover band with another drummer playing songs from Cake to Stevie Wonder.

When Marks filled in when the other drummer was out of town, the band’s chemistry changed and they soon realized that they needed to be a band with original music. With a harmonica and saxophone, Junk Science gave the audience an excuse to dance.

Their sweat-worthy performance oozed with young enthusiasm, so their jazz-funk sound was well received. All of the members of Junk Science are graduates of UMW except for one current senior, which gave the crowd all the more reason to cheer.

Some grooving, some hoopdance and four hours later, the event was over. The walk home was rainy but filled with talk of the three performances. Overall, the performance was well received and fun to be a part of.