For the second Saturday of February, there was a Punk Prom in the Night Owl Café, also known as an “anti-Valentine’s Day” celebration. The event went late into the night, hosted by the Social Activities Council (SAC).
This is not the first time an anti-Valentine’s celebration has been hosted at Keene State, according to senior and SAC President Ashleigh Moroni. She talked about how a similar night was hosted by the SAC four years ago that WKNH DJ’d and had lots of games and treats.
“At the time it was kind of a joke for our team, we were like, ‘Well, none of us really want to celebrate Valentine’s Day; what if we host programming for all of the students that don’t want to?’” Moroni said. “And so it was red and black and everything that is the anti-Valentine’s Day.”
This year, the event provided food and live music from musician Noah Richardson, accompanied by his band. According to SAC’s Instagram page, this is the third time they have performed at KSC.
“This is the first time that SAC as an organization has officially brought [Richardson],” Moroni said. “Back in February of 2023, [the] student involvement office brought him, and then October of 2023 – separate school year – WKNH brought him.”
They had first met at a National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) conference in 2022, a programming conference that SAC attends every fall, according to Moroni. Richardson also became friends with some of the other students that attended, saying they were “incredibly nice.”
“He’s also a good friend of mine at this point, which is a really cool thing to be able to say as someone who plans programming for a college that you meet performers that you build a friendship with,” Moroni said. “He’s super easy to work with.”
Richardson and his band are based out of Philadelphia, his most recent song being “Houston” released back in mid-October of 2024. He just released a single titled “What’s Wrong?” on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
He has been making music for a few years, a couple of his most popular songs being, “Dead To Me” (2022) and “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love Again” (2023) according to Apple Music.
Along with a lot of his other pieces, including a number of unreleased songs from his upcoming EP, Richardson and his band did play his most popular song “Tangerine” for the crowd of students, totalling almost 12.7 million streams on Spotify.
“[In] 2021 I released the song on SoundCloud,” Richardson said. “It was one of the first songs I released ever, and then people were asking me to put it on Spotify and redo it, and I eventually redid it two years later and now it’s my biggest song.”
Moroni talked about how Richardson as an artist isn’t really a punk artist, but that his sound still fit the night and theme of anti-Valentine’s day. SAC wanted to pay homage to the event that has happened before to keep with tradition and to “fit the vibe of a Punk Prom event.”
Richardson said he has a more indie-pop sound rather than a punk sound, but as he has grown as an artist his music has also developed into a more retro style.
“I think that’s just what I was really inspired by at first. I think I’m leaning more now … my start was more indie pop, I think I’m leaning more indie rock now,” Richardson said. “There’s definitely always alternative [music], but definitely the stuff you’re going to hear that’s coming out now is gonna be indie rock, kind of similar to “Backseat Lovers” but really 90’s inspired.”
Not only did their band play a lot of their original songs, but they also performed a few covers, one of which being “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” originally by Tears for Fears.
Even though Moroni is a senior, she said she would love to see Richardson come back to campus at some point.
“I think that [Richardson] has a great rapport with Keene State, and I know that he really enjoys performing here, so I could definitely see him back in some capacity,” Moroni said.
Richardson talked about his history with Keene State and his liking for New England as a whole, starting from when he first performed here in 2023, that being the first show he played on his first tour.
“I came here from Philly that first time, and that was my first time really coming up to New England so I actually loved it, so this is definitely a core memory for me coming here,” Richardson explained. “ The EP I recorded in Connecticut, so a lot of the tour I was on the first time was in Connecticut and New Hampshire itself, but I really enjoy this area, so it’s always nice to come up here.”
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
