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The University of Maine Campus Bands concert will take place Friday from 8 to 11 p.m. in the main dining room of the Memorial Union. Nine different UMaine-based bands will each play a 20-minute set of three to four songs.
The concert will be in support of the Campus Bands compilation, which was released earlier this semester in Bullmoose Music, the University Bookstore and on iTunes. Multiple artists with ties to UMaine contributed a song to the collection.
Organizer James Gilmore said the bands have been working hard to tighten up their sets.
“I’m in quite a few sets, and I’ve seen a lot of progress,” Gilmore said. He will be performing in his bands, GreenerSide and 2 Days Later, and as a solo act.
“Everything looks like it’s going to be very diverse too,” Gilmore said. “On the album they were diverse as well, but even more so now because the instrumentation has changed for a lot of groups.”
Gilmore said rehearsing has been easy with 2 Days Later, but GreenerSide’s drummer lives in southern Maine, making their practices more difficult. For his solo project, he has had to find musicians from around campus.
“The single that I put on the Campus Bands album, I’m now taking Rachel Joyce, Brian [Harris] from 2 Days Later, Luke [Finnemore] from 2 Days Later, Jacob Beach from GreenerSide and Augusto [Bertado], who’s a teacher’s aide in the music department who’s amazing at violin,” Gilmore said.
“I have been rehearsing with a few different people preparing some new collaborations along with some of my new songs, both of which I’m very excited about,” said performer Rachel Joyce, through e-mail.
According to Gilmore, it was difficult for many bands to organize a full band performance because members come from all over. Many are going to be solo acoustic acts because of this, but Gilmore hopes this will make for a great mix. Four or five of the acts will be full bands.
While Gilmore has adopted the annual UMaine Battle of the Bands setup with two stages in the Union, he said that there is no competition.
“All of us, at this point we’ve all played in battle of the bands type things and, at least for most people I’ve talked to, we’re not so into competitive music,” Gilmore said. “It’s a weird thing to assess so we’re kind of trying to stray away from that. It should just be playing for fun.”
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