The University D.I.Y. scene blossoms in a third-story apartment in St. Marks. Dressed in mismatched Christmas lights and crooked lampshades, apartment 3B homes eager musicians of the University. On a stage consisting of a stained and peeling bar stool, two microphones, and a haphazard production set up, each act plays solo kept company by an acoustic guitar and slowly emptying Heineken’s.
The floor is crowded with students sitting as patient as dolls, stoically watching the youth in front of them take their first steps onto the University music scene in the form of fingerpicking and messy chords.
The first act, Josh Ilano, nervously flaunts his solo work. A sign—clearly stolen—advising readers to “Please Not Feed The Pigeons” leans against the wall behind him. Opening with “Photo Album,” Ilano strums coyly, gaining confidence as the song progresses. The audience sits eagerly still, only moving to clap and holler after the final strum.
Next follows a Berklee step-in, Dog Cage, littering originals such as “The Gamble” with instrumental songs, guided by the hovering wriggle of his cowboy boot to keep tempo. His strumming fraternizes with the sound of people drifting in and out of the bathroom. The wooden sliding door doesn’t lock, so the distant laughs and whispers of friends standing in as loyal guards bleed through from behind it.
University Junior, Sammy Bloodworth, closed the event with a mix of originals and covers, guiding the crowd into the following day as the microwave above the oven reads closer to 1 a.m.. When introducing his unreleased single “Catch My Breath” he laughingly describes it as “another from the John Street staircase.”
Bella Muzzi, University Sophomore, hosts the show in her cozy East Village apartment. When asked about why she decided to hold the event, she comments “I just love anything to do with music. I became friends with Josh and Sammy this year and they pitched this idea a while ago and I wanted to make it happen. Everyone here is super creative and super talented.”
Despite the abundance of arts students and enthusiasts, the University has lacked a tangible D.I.Y. scene, the closest we’ve gotten in the past few years being Matt Schneiders performances across the Lower East Side.
Opening act Josh Ilano, economic major and University sophomore shared, “Tonight is a signifier that something bigger at the University is going on that I don’t think anyone is really aware of. The people here are passionate and we care and we want to foster a community that we haven’t seen yet.”
“Dog Cage is able to capture an essence of Americana and youth that I don’t think anyone can do. Sammy knows how to write something catchy and it’s a hard thing to marry poetry and actually catchy music. It’s really beautiful, all of it’s beautiful.”
An official seven-minute break was taken between sets, a time well spent playfully slapping and hugging whoever came off the mic and intermingling with fellow attendees. While many entered and left still strangers, there was a level of comfort and peace everyone agreed to share during their time on the carpeted floor of Muzzi’s living room.
Final act communications major Sammy Bloodworth announces a call to action stating, “The University has an incredible amount of musicians that don’t have access to rooms to practice in, the classrooms on the fifth floor are the place for me, and it’s not fair it’s not right.”
“I don’t think the University is giving enough credit to musicians. B.F.A. and P.P.A. students all get access to practice rooms and University musicians and P.M.G. do not. This is an arts and entertainment school, those rooms aren’t being used all the time and we deserve access.”
Although small, apartment 3B has acted as a catalyst for a bigger conversation as to what it means to be a musician at the University.
