On Friday, Apr. 26, Wofford Live hosted their annual Spring Concert. This year the committee brought the bands Sun Room and Nordista Freeze to perform in the horseshoe.
Wofford Live is a committee that works throughout the year to bring students live music. The committee is also in charge of selecting the Spring Weekend entertainment. Wofford Live President Sebastian Latorre ‘24 explains his passion for the music industry and how that passion helped him develop a plan for the Spring Concert.
“Senior year of high school my best friend and I realized there wasn’t a good way for bands to promote themselves within the community and actually have a following once they get into college,” said Latorre.
Together, they created the New Ground Music Festival in 2019. Taking a brief break for COVID-19, the festival continued for two back to back years in 2021 and 2022.
“We became the largest music festival in Knoxville,” said Lattore. “I got to learn how to work in the music industry, how to book bands, how to talk to agents and how to see which bands are up and coming in the music scene.”
Latorre joined Wofford Live for the first time last year when they booked K Camp and Beach Weather. After working with Wofford Live his junior year, Latorre knew he wanted to be in a chair position the following year.
For the past three Spring Concerts Wofford Live has invited rappers to perform, but there was an agreement amongst the community to offer students a different experience than previous years.
“With it being Rap the last few years a lot of people on campus were like, ‘I wish we just had a band come’.”
This year, Wofford Live began preparations in September, planning where they wanted the performance, how they wanted to lay it out and what type of music they wanted to bring to campus. The committee officially booked both artists in March, having both parties sign off on the contracts.
The committee was in search of an up and coming band that would liven up Spring Weekend.
“Between everyone at Wofford Live, we were like indie rock,” said Lattore. “Indie because it’s fun to follow, but something upbeat as well.”
Recently, a lot of bands have been gaining traction through going viral on social media, instead of the traditional way of making a name by playing lots of shows.
“We came across Sun Room because they’ve been trending on TikTok over the last few years,” said Latorre.
Sun Room is a small surf rock band from San Diego, but they have recently began going on serious tours, such as opening for Louis Tomlinson.
“Sun Room had some songs on the Outer Banks soundtrack a few years ago and that picked up a lot of steam for them,” explained Latorre.
He believed that the surf rock genre matched the general aesthetic of Spring Fest. Students agreed, with the general consensus being that a shift away from rap was a good decision.
“I think we could have had one more band, which is what I wanted. I wanted it to be a three band show. We should have had a Wofford band open up first so it could’ve been longer,” said Latorre, this being his only critique of the show.
Nordista Freeze gave an exciting performance, jumping off the stage to engage the crowd in the show more.
Sun Room made their way to Old Main before their set and took some pictures in a classroom that they then posted to Instagram. The band then gave an exhilarating and uplifting performance that the crowd danced and sang along to.
