I recently had the opportunity to see 3 wonderful bands play at our NoMAD concert, here on campus. This is annually put together by Northern Michigan Artist Discovery, a student-led group that works together to bring artists from across the country to put on a concert, free of charge to NMU students. This year, they had performances by Husbands, Pretty Jane, and The Casper Fight Scene. These artists were all excited to sit down before the show and chat with me about their personal experiences, what brought them to the Upper Peninsula, and what it means to perform at a show like this.
Husbands is a band out of Oklahoma City, OK, basing their music around a beach pop style influenced by psychedelic rock. Their set was very appealing, with lively and trippy visuals for each song, as they played a long list of their discography. I got the chance to speak with Danny, their lead guitarist and vocalist, who was happy to tell me a great deal of history about the group. Husbands started as a recording project out of college in 2013, and though they didn’t start playing live until 2016, gaining support along the way. The band has played on stages across multiple festivals, such as the Austin City Limits festival and Lollapalooza, even opening for Smash Mouth in 2017. This was their first time in the Upper Peninsula, and we hope it’s not the last!
I spoke with the local Marquette band, The Casper Fight Scene, and since the last time I sat down with them a few months ago, they had grown as a band exponentially. The four-piece group recorded their first full-length album in New Jersey in February. This was claimed to be a challenge in some ways, as they wrote a lot on the fly and during their little downtime from recording on some 10-hour days. Success had come from this though, as they held good expectations for the album, releasing hopefully later this year. Typically thriving in the crowded setting of a basement show, the band is used to playing for similar crowds, and they were excited to make the appearance on campus to play in a more professional environment. Their set was fun and engaging, entertaining with bits of classic melodies in between their songs as Jason tuned his guitar. These guys like to have fun on stage, and they share in the fun with the crowd.
With 3 of 4 members of Pretty Jane being Michigan natives, the popular indie rock band was eager to make their way to Marquette. Starting in the basement scene and recently moving to Nashville to expand their musical endeavors, these talented musicians have become very popular in the last few years. The band explained this quick move to Nashville as “intimidating but very supportive overall.” Coming from a background in underground shows and making their way to much larger audiences has been influenced exponentially by their popularity on social media, such as posting many Instagram Reels for their close to 90k followers, and almost 25k on TikTok. They are currently working on an upcoming song, traveling more, and hinting at a tour in the fall.
Even on a snow day, this event was still able to be held, thanks to the awesome people working with the Northern Michigan Artist Discovery group. This year, we were very fortunate to gather lots of students at this event, with growth potential next year. All 3 groups were very entertaining to watch, and we hope to see them back in the future!
This article was edited by Kurt Hauswirth.
