After slogging my way through an especially nasty bout of prelims, this past Friday I finally took the advice of an oh-so-cliché quote that won’t stop popping up on one of my phone widgets: “Love yourself first because that’s who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.” Struggling to relieve myself of the heavy exhaustion that follows extended periods of library-induced sunlight deprivation, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen live music, or for that matter, done something truly on my own. Thus, I found myself sitting inside of the Alice Statler Auditorium on Friday night, unsure of what to expect.
The openers of the Sammy Rae and Will Leet Show, Twin Court, immediately flooded the auditorium with a cacophonous blend of sounds I can only describe as extraterrestrial. Transfixed by the soft vocals of lead singer Gracekelly Fulton and the hypnotic melody of a myriad of accompanying instruments, I was excited to learn that Twin Court is a local band that takes inspiration from the sounds and musical structures of Central Javanese gamelan. Borrowing instruments from Cornell’s gamelan ensemble, Twin Court combines traditional Indonesian music with indie rock and dream pop to curate a sound that’s uniquely their own. The night’s set started out illusive as I adjusted to reverberating bronze gamelan instruments fusing their round pitch with rock-style drums, bass and guitar. However, Twin Court’s sound seemed to take on a clearer meaning the longer I listened; alternating vocalists imbued each song with the simultaneous serenity of “summer’s falling haze” and melancholic pangs for an escape “a thousand miles away.” There’s an inexplicable tension that lies at the beating heart of Twin Court, one that speaks to the innermost desires and fears of its listeners, showing them that it’s possible to see past preconceived structures of sound (and life) to create something that’s natural, raw and authentic. If you’re a music lover in any capacity, I strongly encourage you to give Twin Court’s new album, Forgotten Turns, a listen, or attend one of their performances before the end of the spring semester. Unfortunately for you and me, Twin Court’s members will graduate at the end of this year and opportunities to hear them live in Ithaca are already dwindling.
Still buzzing from the musical high of Twin Court, the audience of some 600 attendees broke into raucous cheers when headliners Sammy Rae and Will Leet appeared on stage. Sammy Rae & The Friends, typically a collective of seven members, was stripped down to little more than Leet’s guitar and both artists’ infectious excitement. A carefully selected set of seven songs paired themselves seamlessly with the flowing vocals of Sammy Rae, who described the band’s typical style as rock with influences of funk and jazz. Immediately upon hearing the opening lines of “Talk It Up,” one of the band’s best-known tracks, I detected the oscillating vibrato in Rae’s vocals often characteristic of jazz artists. The clean-cut clarity of her sound bounced up and down, sometimes soaring twenty feet in the air then just as quickly falling right into my lap. The soft yet masterful accompaniment of Leet’s guitar and occasional vocals married themselves perfectly to the storytelling style of each song. The artists described the overarching message behind their music as one that attempts to peel back layers of superficiality and cheesy sentiment to reach the real “meat and potatoes” of self-belief. Whether jamming about female friendships and queer discovery in “Jackie Onassis,” male mental health in “David” or growing apart from long-standing relationships in “Closer to You,” the genuine, borderline familial connection between Rae and Leet enveloped the auditorium with the warmth of unity and lyrical artistry. The artists’ mission to write songs simple enough to be “accessible to kids” called a mixture of memories, happy and sad, to the forefront of my mind, making me feel one with the river of nostalgic beats blessing my ears.
In lieu of my solo excursion on Friday and the musical lessons I learned, I would like to push against the convention that college is inevitably about independence, quiet introspection and self-discovery. In fact, university life with its flashy bells and whistles is by far the easiest point in a young adult’s life to be sucked into patterns of codependency. While parents and teachers may no longer nag me to wash the dishes, get to class on time or eat my vegetables, the persistent ache in the back of my chest to be everything, everywhere, all the time has only grown in magnitude since stepping foot on campus. It’s safe to say that the transcendent performances of Twin Court, Sammy Rae and Will Leet have officially changed the trajectory of my first spring in Ithaca, inspiring me to seek connection beyond what feels comfortable.
In the words of my widget, I encourage you to get out there this spring and start “spending the rest of your life with [yourself].” It’s all in the little things: try that bakery downtown, watch the sunset on the Slope with your favorite tunes or, in my personal recommendation, attend one of Twin Court’s final live performances this semester. I promise you won’t regret it.
Charlotte Feehan is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at cgf47@cornell.edu.
