Rockers Hit the ‘Dating’ Scene

Unlike the usual “What’s your sign?” heard during traditional speed dating, “What instrument do you play?” was the integral question at last Saturday’s “Band Speed Dating” event, held in the Quincy Cage and organized by the Harvard College Alliance for Rock and Roll (HCARAR).

Though the event was dubbed “speed dating,” instead of being armed with pick up lines and drenched in fragrance, students brought musical equipment of all kinds with the hope of meeting other musically-inclined peers.

“The main idea of the event parallels the point of HCARAR, which is to help musicians connect with each other. We want to make the music community more social and tight knit,” said Shirley L. Hufstedler ’07, president of HCARAR.

The inspiration for the event came from HCARAR’s Events Liason, Amy R. Klein ’07, who got the idea from a music camp she worked for last summer.

“The goal of the camp is for the girls to learn to play instruments and then form a band, so the first day, the girls have to make friends in a speed dating type situation. From there, we just modified it for a college age crowd,” Klein said.

After a few minutes of mingling, Hufstedler began an informal introduction, asking students to introduce themselves with their name, instrument(s) of choice and the style of music they play.

While some students were seeking specific instruments for already established bands, other students were looking to start a band.

Two such students are John G. Marshall ’10 and Chris A. Oland ’10, who met at a meeting of the Canadian Club. “At the first meeting [of the Canadian club], we were supposed to go around and say something interesting about ourselves so I said, ‘I want to start a rock band’ and then it turned out Chris wanted to do the same,” Marshall said.

Marshall, a singer, and Oland, a guitarist, hope to find a bass player to join them.

Other students, such as Nathan C. M. Leiby ’10, attended the event simply hoping to meet other people in the musical world.

“It seems like there are lots of venues for classical and orchestra music, but not really for any new stuff, so this seems like a good opportunity to network and find names of people to play with,” Leiby said.

After initial introductions, students tentatively began to play their instruments and the “jam sessions” promised by the event fliers began. One of the first to play was Anna I. Polonyi ’10, who provided a blues beat on the drums for Lee H. Dietterich ’10 on the clarinet and Momin M. Malik ’08 on the sitar.

The trio began slowly, with each musician playing solo for a few minutes in order to give the others a feel for their style. Once comfortable with each other’s sound, the three began to play in unison, captivating those around them, with one student going so far as to motion frantically to his friend in the hall to come hear the trio.

This kind of coming together of musicians was precisely the goal of the event, and the mission of HCARAR in general.

According to Hufstedler, the members of HCARAR hope to establish monthly coffeehouse events, which will be held in house common rooms.

Also in the works is the second annual Boston-area Battle of the Bands, as well as a potential Harvard-Yale Battle of the Bands, tentatively planned for the day of the Harvard-Yale football game.

“We are focused on making the Harvard music scene accessible and moving it away from music that’s isolated and on a stage far away from the audience,” Hufstedler said. “We want to make it more intimate and really make a connection.”

Perhaps Malik, the sitar-player, phrased the general sentiment most succinctly. “I’m here to jam and see what happens,” he said.