Keene State’s Social Activities Council (SAC) rocked the student center lawn with its Rocktoberfest event on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Rocktoberfest featured the Ben Katzman band, with Splatter as the opening act.
SAC President Ashleigh Moroni said Rocktoberfest was previously an annual tradition, but it became difficult to maintain with a declining student population and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re bringing it back in terms of restarting that tradition and not doing it exactly how we did it before,” Moroni said. She described previous years’ Rocktoberfests as “battle of the bands” style events, standing in contrast to this year’s. “Rocktoberfest to me is a fall outdoor rock concert.”
Moroni added there are many KSC students who are fans of the show “Survivor,” of which Katzman was featured in the most recent season.
Katzman said the band has been on tour since the season aired. He said they play all around the country.
“We’ve been on tour on and off since the TV show aired,” Katzman said. “I’ve been playing nonstop. We just pulled into Charlotte, N.C. a couple of weeks ago and we’re playing a festival in Miami next week and then we’re touring the west coast. The rock don’t stop.”
Katzman added he likes playing on college campuses because students are open-minded.
“Kids, I think, are open to experience, so even if they don’t like the music they’ll come check something out,” Katzman said. “And I’m just stoked to rock for anybody who’s open to rock.”
Splatter bassist and singer Max Orio, a junior, said he was focused on delivering a solid live set.
“The set we’re doing for Rocktoberfest is inspired by rock throughout the years, what everyone defines as rock,” Orio said. “We do some of the very well-known ones. We’re going to start with old-style rock, very foundational rock, very 12-bar blues-esque rock and then we’re going to go into some of our crowd pleasers that we’ve had.”
Splatter opened with two rock medleys. Orio said each of the medleys had a theme.
“The first one is an older rock medley and the second one is all songs that allude to alcohol use, alcohol and drinking like Margaritaville … but they’re all rocking.”
Senior Joe Craighead attended Rocktoberfest and described himself as a big fan of “Survivor” and Katzman. He said he was able to get Katzman’s autograph as well as a picture with him, and added he enjoyed the songs Splatter played during its set.
“I like [events like this] so far, I think we should do this more often,” Craighead said.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
