Clint Roscoe ‘23
Staff Editor
The drive over to Crozet on Friday morning was bright, sunny, and still a little crisp. A perfect day for debaucherous shenanigans at Charlottesville’s favorite old-house-turned-outdoor-pizza-bar. I was really glad I had packed and loaded up the whole drum kit the night before. Not because the weather had anything to do with that: it just always sucks, I just love sleeping in.
Since Torts Illustrated would be playing, and I’m the drummer, my experience was bound to be a little different than your average Fauxfielder, but I was super psyched for it. We finished getting set up and running a soundcheck right around the time they brought in the huge FAUXFIELD balloons (that took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. I know we’re all bad at math; are we allowed to be bad at English, too?) I’m also pretty sure we tripped one of Crozet’s circuit breakers at some point – I was out grabbing more equipment when it happened, but that’s cool, right? I don’t know. I’m the only one of us that’s not wired up to anything, and that’s probably best for everyone involved. The last thing anyone needs is a drummer playing with electricity.
I had been a little worried about space before I got there, but as I unloaded the kit and started setting up equipment with the rest of the band, Crozet and their stage delivered. It was like that little magic bag from Harry Potter – doesn’t look that big, but did it fit two PAs, extra guitars and pedals, microphones, an entire drum kit, and six people? Yes. Yes it did. I didn’t think anything could contain the sheer rocking power of our guitarists – Davin Laskin ’22, Ethan Treacy ’23, and our bassist, Kelli McQuillan ’23. Nor did I expect there to be room for our vocalist Marc Kilani ’22 and guest vocalist Rachel Wunderli to belt out some Papa Roach and Paramore, but I’m very happy to have been proven wrong on all counts.
We finished the first half of the set as the sun began to set and the darty turned into a normal party. This was exciting, because the second half had “Enter Sandman” in it, which is my favorite song because, as I said before, I love sleeping. That would have to wait until later, though, because we cranked the PAs a bit and had an even bigger blast with the rest of the set – judging by the copious amount of beer flowing and the dancing of the crowd, I hope you all did too. By the time the last notes of “I Want It That Way” faded out, I was more than a little exhausted, very stoked to have played another gig, and mostly impressed with myself for not falling backwards over Crozet’s railing. (That has to have happened to someone at some point, right? Maybe the balcony at Trin? The whole Corner feels like a premises liability hypo waiting to happen.)
For how tucked into a corner[1] it is, I was very impressed by how easy it was to load everything into and out of Crozet’s staging area; they obviously do this a lot and it shows. We packed everything out as quickly as we had come in – many thanks to the extra hands that helped us – and joined the rest of the school in the exodus to one of the many afterparties that would, in true UVA fashion, inevitably end up back on the Corner.
Before Friday, 1Ls and 2Ls alike had been asking me what Fauxfield was for about a month, and it kept feeling like I was making up the answer because I was just repeating what I had heard about it. The blind leading the blind, so to speak. I’m sure I’m not alone among the 2L class in feeling like that a lot over the last couple months. Institutional knowledge has had an interesting relationship with the pandemic – the blurred outlines[2] of normally annual events are still there, but their exact details are a little fuzzy. Lucky for us, I think it keeps working out. I don’t know exactly what Fauxfield’s past looked like, and that’s okay. Because THIS Fauxfield rained Jell-O shots, pizza, balloons, and the sick tones of Davin’s guitar blasting out the main riff from “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and that was pretty awesome.
Lastly, I’ve got to give a big thank you to everyone who attended and helped facilitate Fauxfield. I’m immensely glad to have an opportunity to play the drums again, especially around so many wonderful people. I know I speak for the entire band when I say we all had a fantastic time, and we can’t wait to get back out there. See you all at the next big gig.