Harvard DJ Duo Courantes Brings Improvised Currents to Boiler Room Benefit

Courantes, the DJ duo of Grant S.C. Shueh ’27 and Dylan Rhee ’25, played third in a four-set lineup for a Boiler Room-style night at Big Night Live on Sept. 18. The event was a fundraiser organized by Dope Entertainment — a Boston-based entertainment company — and Northeastern University’s Alpha Kappa Sigma fraternity.

In the music scene, the phrase Boiler Room designates an intimate, underground EDM party; the progenitor of the term is a multimedia conglomerate which organizes, broadcasts, and archives DJ sets from clubs around the globe. Rather than playing on a venue stage from above, DJs usually occupy a station surrounded by their crowd. Popularized on YouTube, the scene involves the DJ hovering over their deck, tactilely producing the vibe as their throng of EDM enjoyers move to the sounds.

On the club floor, tables arranged in a horseshoe enveloped local DJ Klopp as he kicked off the night at 9 p.m. College-aged club-goers trickled in to fill up the rest of the floor space. Alpha Kappa Sigma’s lion mascot glowed on the side panels.

DJ Snaxx performed next, mixing popular hip-hop hits and bringing up the energy. He blended the “Who? Who?” line in Drake’s “NOKIA” with the leading hoots in A$AP Ferg’s “Work (Remix),” encouraging the audience to synchronize their own barks. The crowd buzzed around the DJ station, like electrons around a nucleus; frat boys and girls alike flicked fingers in rhythm.

Ari C. Desai ’27 enjoyed the music while preparing to work as Courantes’ videographer for the night. An Art, Film, and Visual Studies and Economics concentrator, Desai first worked with the duo as part of his final project for a film class last spring. Music videos are relatively new to Desai, but he’s been making videos with Shueh and Rhee since then.

“Over the summer in New York, I filmed some of their DJ sets just around the city,” Desai said.

As an undergraduate, Rhee was able to grow musically while building a community by co-founding Harvard’s electronic music group Reverb. He prides the group on developing an environment to party, appreciate this music genre, and have “a more inclusive kind of fun.” He looks forward to Reverb’s future.

“We passed it along to a lot of great people, including Grant,” Rhee said as he smiled.

As Courantes switched in, there was an awkward 5 seconds during which the music stopped. In the silence, Shueh played the daunting intro to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, building suspense for the emergence of remixed disco classic “Keep On Jumpin’” by Musique. The screens flashed with green upon the initial beat drop.

Shueh, a Philosophy and Mathematics concentrator, discussed the duo’s priorities for the Courantes set: “I mean, first priority, we want people to dance, have a good time. But as artists, we also want to showcase a very improvisational, rawly human side to music.”

“Our idea is to play kind of like how a jazz band plays,” Rhee said.

Throughout their set, both artists seemed to be in sonic conversation with one another. By playing the keyboard live, Shueh provides Rhee with samples which the pair can augment, loop, and mix into a novel sound.

Shueh emphasized the amount of effort they exert: “A lot of focus on making it a unique experience with the audience that will never be repeated.”

The composition of the set was incredibly diverse, weaving in more iconic soundbites like the Pink Panther Theme opening or the horns from Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” to modern house songs.

Courantes was scheduled to conclude at midnight — right as the date changed to Shueh’s birthday.

“You know, music is one of the biggest parts of my life. It’s really special to turn 21 surrounded by my friends, playing music,” Shueh said.

The final DJ, JAMØ, switched in with a high-energy set for the last act, playing EDM giants like Galantis alongside jams such as Elton John’s Tiny Dancer and Frank Ocean’s Lost. In addition to various extraterrestrial visuals, an inflated green alien flailed across the floor. Joaquin Gentil Torres, a self-proclaimed house music lover and an undergraduate at Northeastern who attended the event, noted the shift in energy that came with the final DJ.

“Now it’s getting really good, so I have high hopes,” he said.

This year’s iteration was the third Boiler Room fundraiser the fraternity has put together, according to Conor P. Brennan, a brother of Alpha Kappa Sigma and a lead organizer of the benefit concert. The fraternity has donated all proceeds toward the Matt Fishman Memorial Scholarship in partnership with RACE Cancer, a Boston-area nonprofit which fundraises for cancer-related causes mainly through running events.

The scholarship honors Northeastern and Alpha Kappa Sigma alumnus Matt Fishman, who died in 2024 from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. It is awarded annually to high school student musicians who have been impacted by cancer or other medical hardship. Fishman was a gifted musician.

“We figured, what better way to continue his legacy,” Brennan said.

The Boiler Room ultimately brought Boston’s intercollegiate community together in a resonance of good beats and vibes — and for a good cause.