Last Thursday, 200 people flooded into Keene State College’s Mabel Brown Room. Organized by KSC’s radio station [WKNH], Keene’s own Jake McKelvie & the Countertops as well as Boston’s Big D and the Kids Table played a free show.
Michael Graham, program director of WKNH, and Matt Bacon, events coordinator of WKNH, were some of many who put effort into setting up the show.
Many people may not understand how much preparation must go into an event like this.
“[It was] a lot of learning this time, we kind of did a lot of it on the fly,” Bacon explained as he listed everything from emailing the band and confirming a date with the student center early-on, to setting up a sound system and accommodating the band the day of the show.
Eric Gesualdo / Equinox Staff:
Band members of the Boston band Big D and the Kid’s Table perform in the Mabel Brown Room at Keene State College, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. KSC’s
After the show was a go, it was time to start gathering an audience. Flyers, banners, ads and a Facebook group were made in advance to ensure a large turnout for the event.
According to Graham, it was also important to make sure the public knew it was a drug-free space. This type of security depended on the members of WKNH, E-board members, DJs, an intern and a past general manager, because they had the responsibility of becoming the entire security of the show. Graham explained, “There [was] some security. The situation, as I would put it, is we should have had a Campus Safety officer scheduled for the event, but since we didn’t meet with any Campus Safety until three days before the event, that didn’t really happen.”
Staff members wore designated T-shirts and worked on security such as keeping the balcony to strictly the bands and checking the bathrooms every so often.
The headliner was Indie-rock band, Jake McKelvie & the Countertops. No stranger to Keene, this band has played house shows in town, has made previous appearances through WKNH and has participated in the Keene Music Festival.
Unfamiliar to the Keene audience, however, was Big D and the Kids Table. Described as a Ska/Punk/Stroll/Dub band, Big D and the Kids Table performed for the Keene crowd for the first time. In comparison to other bands and artists that have come to KSC and played, Graham said, “Having Big D [and the Kids Table] come is more inducive to having people come learn new music.”
Eric Gesualdo / Equinox Staff:
The band Jake McKelvie & the Countertops perform in downtown Keene, N.H.
In an interview with WKNH DJ Rebecca Barishian, Big D and the Kids Table’s front man Dave McWane explained how their band can appeal to many audiences. “I think the curse and the awesomeness of Big D [and the Kids Table] is that everybody listens to different music…[ours] goes all over the place….”
For KSC junior McKenna Sherrill, it wasn’t her first time seeing Big D and the Kid’s Table.
“It’s a band that I don’t listen to on the daily but they played a show in my hometown with Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish. I really enjoyed their performance,” Sherrill shared.
Graham said he finds it important that WKNH continues to bring live music to the KSC audience.
Graham said, “Why wouldn’t it be important? Since we’re a radio show, we should be having bands. If a radio isn’t having bands come play on the air, what’s the point in having a radio station?”
Danielle Mulligan can be contacted at dmulligan@keene-equinox.com
