School spirit never sounded so good, or so loud.
Sunday night marked the latest installment of our annual pop rally known as Bruin Bash, and this year’s lineup was as bright as ever.
Pauley Pavilion was filled with hordes of students, most wrapped around the stadium seats, while others huddled toward the stage on the arena floor. Over all the other screaming and chanting, 8-claps could be faintly heard, and camera flashes went off every other second as students scrambled to take their next Facebook profile pics.
The show started with The Cool Kids, who enveloped the room with their bassy love. The subwoofers pumped out their deep, grimy tones while rappers Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish flowed about their Segas and bicycles. After the group went through “88” and “Black Mags” ““ among other tracks from their album, “The Bake Sale” ““ Inglish confessed that he was losing his voice, but he still managed to put on a show with more energy than most.
Students bobbed their heads and raised their hands as The Cool Kids rounded out a powerful set, both in energy and volume. They left the arena roaring and ready for the next performer: America’s British flavor of the month, Estelle.
The highly anticipated set opened with tracks from her albums “Shine” and “The 18th Day.” The back-up dancers went through their moves as Estelle sang to the almost-overwhelmingly loud music. Between tracks, Estelle handed out valuable life advice that our parents probably never gave us, like not to get pregnant or contract venereal disease.
Estelle closed with the track everyone came to see, “American Boy,” which the audience received with open arms and ear-piercing screams. Since Kanye wasn’t billed to perform, the DJ spun a remixed version of the track, which looped recordings of his voice while Estelle followed with half of her lyrics. Verses were cut, and the remix seemed a bit sloppy, but the audience was so drunk with excitement that it didn’t seem to care, singing along and dancing the whole time.
While her performance may have been a slight disappointment, especially after The Cool Kids shook the house so brilliantly, the Bruins in attendance were still rocking as Estelle left the stage and made way for the final performers, Hellogoodbye.
The last set of the night was a triumph, which peaked with Hellogoodbye’s performance of “Here (In Your Arms).” Students reveled in the loud guitar riffs and distorted vocals of Forrest Kline as they bounced around and sang along, with their arms flailing above them.
Hellogoodbye filled the set with other tracks from their album “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” to end the show on a high note.
After the three very different, but all high-energy shows, the stage was finally emptied for the last time. But just as the law of conservation of energy states, the total amount of energy in the system remained constant as students found themselves ready for everything else the celebration had to offer, post-concert.
In the end, Bruin Bash, which aimed to boost school spirit through the common appreciation of music, proved to be successful, and we can only hope that the academic and cultural powerhouse that is UCLA can attract talented performers for next year’s concert.
““ Rob Kavidar
E-mail Kavidar at rkavidar@media.ucla.edu.