Some of you may have noticed a certain funk in the air by the Duck Pond Wednesday. No, not the funk that makes you wrinkle your nose, but the kind of funk that makes you want to get up and move.
Student Special Events, an executive branch of ASUNM, has organized a month-long program of live music titled Live at Lunch that premiered Wednesday with California funk one-man show Mike Silverman.
Silverman, who goes by the stage name "That One Guy," wowed a growing audience with his one-man funk, jam-out and rhythmic sound produced by a variety of traditional and not-so traditional instruments.
"This is the most people I've ever seen out here to listen to music," said Jesse Herron, a junior majoring in business. Herron, who bought one of Silverman's albums, said he liked the performance because it was a kind of sound he had never really heard before. "It's original, very original," he said.
Jared Meyer, SSE promotions director, said one of the goals of Live at Lunch was to generate some fun on campus through a medium almost all can appreciate - music.
"It's really hard to generate a buzz on campus," Meyer said.
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So generate a buzz is exactly what SSE is trying to do. The Live at Lunch music series, which will take place every Wednesday and most Fridays of April, is also meant to get the word out among the campus community about Fiestas, an all-day music festival returning to campus April 20.
Fiestas, which has been an SSE-sponsored campus event for several decades, had fallen into disarray in past years. Eventually, apathy toward the event culminated in the cancellation of the festival last year. Now the show is back, and the SSE staff is using live music to promote - what else - live music.
"With Noontimes (former title of Live at Lunch), as well as Fiestas, we didn't want it to be the same things you hear all the time," said Sarah McKinney, cultural director for SSE. Silverman's show was anything but the same old music most people hear all the time.
Through the one-hour performance, onlookers could not help but stop, stare and listen as Silverman filled the air with a wholly original and entertaining sound. Using a homemade instrument called a magic pipe, which oddly resembles a cross between a stand-up bass and the guts of indoor plumbing, the professional musician triggers pre-recorded samples and several loops to create a high-energy sound heavy with beats and bass.
"It's a product of all of the shit I've been playing my whole life," Silverman said. Silverman, who has been performing his one-man act for 10 years, is actually touring the United States to promote his new album, Songs in the Key of Beotch.
"Playing by myself is the most challenging thing I've ever done," Silverman said. "You can't depend on anyone else."
Silverman was just one of a long list of musicians, most of whom are local, who will be performing this month at the Cactus Garden just west of Zimmerman Library. Organizers of Live at Lunch and Fiestas placed relatively high value on diversity among music acts.
"Music is what gets people's attention," Meyer said.
If the rest of Live at Lunch and the April 20 Fiestas is as original and diverse as Mike Silverman's music, SSE might just be able to generate the buzz that is so desperately needed on campus.
The Live at Lunch music series will run from noon to 1 p.m. every Wednesday and most Fridays through April. Contact SSE at 277-5602 for more information regarding Live at Lunch and Fiestas. For more information about Mike Silverman and his one-man act, visit his Web site at www.that1guy.com.
