Indie pop sensation Spill Tab made their way to campus this past Friday night, performing for the 2024 Fall Concert hosted by CAB. Students gathered in the Tolles Pavilion for a night of community, energy and most importantly, music.
Doors opened at 7:30 for registered ticket holders, and security stood on guard for any “visually intoxicated” concert goers. If you managed to make it past them, you would find a table decorated with free stickers and ear plugs; all the fixings for a safe, memorable musical experience! Walking down the hall to the Annex, you could now see the tens of Hamilton students dressed in their finest concert dress. Sparkling bedazzled shirts with black mini skirts, oversized graphic tees with extra-oversized jeans; the ongoing y2k style resurgence of the 2020s was apparent in the night’s crowd attire, of course but, maybe unexpectedly, in their dance moves as well. People crunked all over as student DJ Jack Graziani ’27 opened the dance floor with viral song remixes. The crowd jumped with his highs and lows as rotating coloured lights back lit him like a cinematic monarch with the crowd’s energy at his fingertips. Electronic bass pulsed through the crowd’s body as the night deepened, and by the time Graziani’s set was done, students were warm with adrenaline and blood, ready for Spill Tab to make their Hamilton debut.
After a brief period of waiting, Spill Tab walked on stage to smattering applause. The crowd was small (about 1/4 of The Annex was filled) but it was enthusiastic nonetheless. Lead singer Claire Chicha stood true to the Indie Pop ethos, with long bleached streaks running down her hair that she pushed back constantly, and a baggy, boho-chic tattered t-shirt layered over a white long sleeve. She appeared relaxed and experienced under the spotlight. After a short and sweet introduction (“Hi, we’re Spill Tab, et cetera et cetera”) the band broke out into song. The music held true to the indie pop ethos as well; atmospheric, lyrical and yearning. One popular concern for Spill Tab’s performance was that they would not match the anticipated energy of Hamilton students; that perhaps ukulele is the wrong vibe for a college campus. No ukulele was found onstage that night, and Spill Tab upped the tempo of their slower songs to maintain the energy that Jack Graziani fostered.
Spill Tab interacted heavily with the audience, inviting students onstage, most notably Carson Belle-Isle ’28. Standing front row, Belle-Isle reportedly reached onstage with his phone screen reading, “Can I come onstage???” Chicha took notice, and after some indistinguishable back-and-forth between the two, Belle-Isle was suddenly facing the crowd with a guitar in-hand playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. Spill Tab’s bassist and drummer fell in line with him, spontaneously following along the well known chorus, and Chicha and Belle-Isle sang as a duo.
For their final song, Chicha hinted that it is usually accompanied by a mosh pit. If you have any preconceived notions that Hamilton students are not mosh-pit capable, you would have been proven wrong as students formed a circle, holding each other back in charged anticipation for the climax. When it came, students rushed towards the center in a purgative crescendo of bodies crashing, feet stumbling and Claire Chicha’s voice running through the air of now-flashing lights. Chicha smiled whilst the crowd churned, and as the song ran out she turned the tables, applauding the audience for the life and spirit they reciprocated with the band. This moment sums up the entirety of the fall concert experience, with audience participation, cathartic songwriting and community being key factors to the event’s success.
