A friend at Colby told us one of the perks of going to an isolated school is that the administration helps book and even pay bands to play. We responded that going to school in Boston you can see a show any night of the week.
To this he said, "Whatever, dude. School unity!" This apparently means in Colby dialect seeing a concert at school, with classmates, has a pride-instilling, bonding effect not present at a random club in a huge city.
To this we reply, "You've obviously never heard of AppleJam."
AppleJam, which is separate from Concert Board, hosts musical performances on the Tufts Medford campus mainly geared towards the messenger-bag-and-low-top-Chuck-wearing indie-rock genre.
Using meager allotments from the student activities fee, AppleJam has hosted critically acclaimed and nationally (even internationally!) prominent artists like Les Savy Fav, Ted Leo + the Pharmacists, and Yo La Tengo.
The group is bringing Portland, Maine band Softer to Hotung on Thursday. It is the first installment of the club's monthly concert series.
Softer is one of those unquestionably indie bands that cites My Bloody Valentine, Minus the Bear, and, of course, Death Cab for Cutie, as prominent influences on their sound.
AppleJam president Paul Farris calls them "intricate, emotional, and accessible."
On "Confessions of an Ardent Heart," Softer's contribution to indie label Deep Elm's compilation "This is Indie Rock: Volume Three," the band precariously toes the line between grungy indie-rock and heart-on-sleeve emo, with singer Gabe Lane's vocals sloshing from one genre to the other.
The more recent and pop-sensible "The Sea is a Fickle Mistress," from their recent EP "I was a Teenage Immaterialist" is a terse, lush guitar melody with syncopated snare drums to prop up Lane's falsetto. It sounds like an FM rock station's dream: a creative hit.
Rounding out Thursday's line-up are The Lincoln Conspiracy and The Main Drag.
The Lincoln Conspiracy, who hail from Boston, are one of the area's most promising rising acts. The Boston Globe calls the trio's guitar-less piano pop "insanely catchy." The band has so far managed to shed comparisons to similar piano-based groups like Hot Hot Heat and Something Corporate.
The Main Drag are also from the area: They all go to Tufts. On record, students Adam Arrigo and Matt Levitt team up for a shiny, bizarre indie-folk sound. Their stage shows - and they have opened for AppleJam alums The Unicorns and The Arcade Fire - take on a whole new dynamic. Adding fellow Tufts students Corey Levitt, Tom Keidel, and Nate Reticker-Flynn, The Main Drag take on a bigger, livelier dynamic that should bedevil the Hotung faithful.
Though coupling the disparate styles (and fan bases) of an indie/emo band, a piano pop band, and an indie folk band sounds risky from a promoter's perspective, Farris sees a key similarity amongst the groups.
"I really think that in a year or two, at least one of these bands will be famous," he said.
He should know. He helped AppleJam last year land Apollo Sunshine, who just last week sold out their record release party at the Middle East in Cambridge. The club snagged The Walkmen before they became indie darlings, and were reportedly courting Bloc Party months before they sold out the Avalon.
While that kind of prescience is commendable (and eerie), it's fundamental to AppleJam.
"We want people to read about a band and be able to say, 'I saw them last year in a cafe at college with a hundred other kids,'" Ferris said.
