Students were drawn to the music department area on Wednesday, March 11 by the “one, two, three, check!” microphone cue and roar of live music.
The band Weird Creatures was invited to play by the Theater-224 class, Portable Entertainment Technology -Audio and Staging, so students could have a chance to put what they learned into practice.
Professor Brad Williams teaches 10 weeks out of the regular session class on all the different components including microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers, giving students a chance to learn about all the parts that go into a live-sound system.
According to Williams, “We set up and tear down the system many times on the Burnight Center stage practicing, but we just have one live concert. My portion of the course is only 10 weeks and this is the ninth week so the next time we meet we’ll have a final, so this was sort of the practical final.”
Weird Creatures has been around since 2012, with members lead singer/bass player Eddie Jordan and students John Eric Santamaria on guitar and Michael “Mikey” Enriquez on drums.
Santamaria, music major said, “I write the guitar parts for everything. Everything was originally mine but the lyrics are Eddie, [the lyrics] are about this life. Its interesting to hear about someone’s life through lyrics.”
Lead singer Eddie Jordan was excited to perform and said, “This is the first performance since our break. Eric told me that the school recording program needed a band to record but little did I know it was actually performance but I just went along with it.”
The TH 224 class allows students to set up in the way they would a concert but in this case, a smaller version for the Weird Creatures band.
“[The music department] is very unique to any of the other music programs in all the community colleges because of the applied [music] program, I am a part of that as well and it does help a lot in my playing technique and as far of just gathering different ideas,” said Mikey Enriquez, music major.
According to theater major Jennifer Calderon, who is a student in the Theater-224 class, explained how most people don’t know about this program and how it is a “three part kind of thing.”
“In the fall there’s a class on lighting, during spring it’s the sound and rigging class and in the summer students can apply all parts by having a summer concert on campus.”
She adds, “This is a program where you learn how to do events and you get a certificate if you get all three done together.”
Calderon also said, “If people want to come and do concerts, we have connections to the real world. Brad the instructor has his own sound company.
“If you come to learn these things and you show that you are really interested and want to do this as a career, it’s possible for us to give you connections to get a real job out there.”
