Second-year ethnomusicology student Julian Cubillos.
Six days out of the week, Taylor Fugit’s apartment at 447 1/2 Midvale looks like any other.
But come Friday night, black lights will reveal the words “Midvale Sessions” painted on the wall, while more than 100 people, most of them UCLA students, pack into the apartment to experience one of the area’s newest concert series.
Midvale Sessions, which takes place on Friday night of every other week beginning Week 2 of the quarter, is the brainchild of four Bruins: Fugit, a third-year ethnomusicology student, Matthew Flesock, a third-year history and geography/environmental studies student, Aaron Rabkin, a third-year history student, and David Chong, an alumnus.
Midvale Sessions originated from an idea for a campus talent showcase for Fugit and Rabkin’s show on UCLAradio.com.
But the idea remained a distant fantasy until the fall of 2010, when Flesock, Rabkin and Fugit moved into an apartment together, which they thought would provide the perfect venue for their proposed shows.
“I was just sitting at home over winter break thinking, “˜We really have to do this,'” Fugit said. “We had been talking about the idea of doing a concert series, but it wasn’t really going anywhere.”
Fugit came back from winter break determined to realize the group’s ambition of creating a concert series, and by the middle of winter quarter, the four Bruins’ dream became a reality.
According to the four founders, Midvale Sessions provides an opportunity for campus talent to reach a wider audience, even if the talent doesn’t play music that traditionally appeals to a college audience.
“This is not music that 20-year-old sorority girls are going to be playing on iTunes, but they come to Midvale Sessions, and the atmosphere is so perfect that everyone is vibing together,” Fugit said. “It’s pretty incredible to see the wide range of people in our community.”
The founders agreed that the defining characteristic of their shows is the intimate apartment setting.
“(These shows) are in an apartment. We don’t have a venue, this isn’t at Brew Co. or The Glendon,” Flesock said. “It’s all in a living room. Our stage is a rug, and our lighting is Christmas lights strung on our wall.”
As if to drive this point home, the founders recently had to cancel a planned show because the combined weight of the large number of attendees at previous concerts had caused a crack in the ceiling of the apartment below.
The small venue also allows for a stronger interaction between the bands and the audience.
“The musicians are right in front you,” Chong said. “You can see everything that’s going on and figure out what sounds are coming from where, and you can see who’s controlling what ““ there are no hidden places. It feels like a very real thing.”
The absence of a professional venue gives the shows an added dimension of spontaneity that an audience member would be far less likely to encounter at a streamlined club or concert hall.
“We had one night where our equipment and our monitors actually broke during a band’s piano solo, so I stood up and told everyone that we had to shut the show down,” Chong said. “Then one person yelled, “˜Can we just listen to them jam?’ and everyone agreed.
They didn’t even want the singing, they just wanted the band to play and for everyone to hang out and have a great time.”
Though Midvale Sessions is currently a primarily musical venture, the founders said they hope to expand the scope of their entertainment in the future.
“It’s easy to start with bands, because everyone can come and listen to music, but someone might not want to listen to stand-up comedy,” Flesock said. “If you can create a show where a stand-up comedian opens for a band that plays before a spoken word piece and then another band to close, that would be a cool night ““ a cool, multifaceted night. That’s what we are going for in the end.”