Students Gather at the Tennis for Three Bands
May 18, 2021
A student driven concert was held at the tennis courts on NECC’s campus on Monday night, leaving students happy after listening to some good music, joining in on activities, and eating some good snacks.
The concert was directed by students, specifically Ethan McCorkle-Dieken, who is an audio engineering student here at Northeast Community College.
“There were three bands. The first was Mike Hilson. He’s a guitar teacher at Northeast.” Student Zachary Guzman said. “He sang and played the guitar while student Malcolm Opoku played the bass with him.
The band that preformed second was Peace n Rest with a country/rock vibe.
The members of the band included Ethan McCorkle-Dieken, Micah, and Hunter, audio recording students at Northeast. They covered a few songs that students reported to have enjoyed.
“Peace n Rest was definitely my favorite band there.” Student Black Barlington said, “I really like music with a lot of guitar and almost a twang feels, so I’ll be listening to more of their music on my own.
“Barlington is a member of student life at NECC, he works as an RA. He makes sure students are safe by working the front desk, he gives tours, and also good tips to new students.
“We had chips, popsicles, and snack bars for the students to enjoys as they listened to the music. This was a great way to start the end of the year. Students were having fun, hanging out at the concert, and enjoying snacks while engaging with their peers. Couldn’t get much better than that.” Barlington said.
The last band to perform at the concert was The Strangers, a band from Lincoln NE.
“The Strangers preformed original alternative rock songs and ended a cover of Marigold B-Side by Nirvana.” Student Jackie Duras said, “this was my personal favorite of the night because Nirvana will always be one of my favorite bands. It almost felt personal to me.”
You can find The Strangers on both Spotify and Apple Music.
Beyond the amazing performance, there was a lot of hard work that went into setting up the concert.
Timothy Miller, audio/recording instructor, worked with Ethan McCorkle-Dieken to fulfill fantasy of a student driven concert.
“We started right around one o’clock in the afternoon moving gear out and getting out ready for the show. We were done around six o’clock that evening.” Miller said, “so we moved pretty quick. We set up all the speakers, monitors, the monitor system. We had to get the electrical tie-in connected and ready go.”
“I thought it was a great collab between our RASA students who helped organize it. It was kind of a win win because our music students got to work with musicians and get experience there, and our audio students got to experience what it would be like to set up a concert with live sound.” Miller said. He mentioned that Sara Earl thought the students had a blast. Sara Earl is the Associate Director of Residents Life.
“I think it would be nice to make this an annual thing! We had a group of kids hanging out in the crowd but on the said there were kids tossing footballs around and enjoying their last few days here at NECC before the end of the year.” Earl said, “The band members interacted really well with students and tried to interact with them as they performed which I thought was absolutely amazing. Definitely be looking forward to something similar for next year.”
