“I had a son from a one-night stand but it turned out that I really liked him.”

Once upon a time, on a Wesleyan orientation week long ago, an enormous and very silly rap-rock group called Static Stamina was formed, consisting mostly of then-Butts residents, including Will Feinstein ’13, Stefan Skripak ’13, Nicole Lepre ’13, Adrien DeFontaine ’13, Jacob Eichengreen ’13, Nate Jacobs ’13, Danny Sullivan ’13, and Claire Dougherty ’13 (who I mostly remember shouting “STATIC MOTHA-FUCKIN STAMINA!” at shows).  For a couple of practice sessions, our great leader Zach was even present. Like the illustrious Beatles, Static Stamina demonstrated their power by growing in size every month of the year. Their high-octane act and somewhat obnoxious sense of humor created many memorable nights in my underclassman years.

There often comes a time when one must put away childish things, however, and when Static Stamina took the stage at the WestCo Cafe on Thursday, joined by Dink 583 and Tonsil Hockey, they had not played together under that name in probably two years. The present lineup of the band was uncertain, as many of the coeterie had gone on to play with Feinstein in bands like Chants, which won Awesomefest two years ago. Sam Ebb ’13, Jason Katzenstein ’13 (who is standing behind me and adding effusive copy about himself), and Danny Sullivan ’13 were also present. Feinstein told (warned?) the audience that Chants would appear at some indefinite point during the set; Chants is Spencer Burnham ’14, Ethan Young ’13, Defontaine, and Feinstein. They are a bit more punk-oriented, but many of the differences collapse in the face of Feinstein’s charisma, whether he is throwing kleenex and ripped-up pieces of Argus at audience members and shouting “You got an issue/tissue? Here’s a tissue/issue!” or suffering from an intentional short-term memory loss that causes him and the band to play a very short song called “My Son” eight times over the course of a set. Feinstein stood on top of various equipment and appeared to tower over the crowd, leading to gestures of devotion from them. A surprising number of current underclassmen were present; may they be inspired by this show to continue Wesleyan’s musical creative streak.