BY ANNA ZALOKOSTAS

In print | December 6, 2007

Earnestly tapping, tinkering, twirling and whirling out songs of youthful radiance and offbeat beauty, I Saw The Bloodied Snow But I Did Not See The Creature warmed the crowd of Olde Club with its romantic sincerity and impassioned harmonies at the band’s first full-length show on Friday, Nov. 30. As Stephanie Duncan ‘08, Bizzy Hemphill ’08, Nick Forrest ’08, Dwight Smith ’08 and Patrick Lindsey ’08 took the stage with their song “Magical Mystery Tour,” the band’s guitars, melodica, accordion and keyboard swirled together in an insistent avowal of whimsy and wonder that swelled and encased the audience, grabbing all those watching and sealing them in sweeping layers of intimacy, honesty and sweetness, contagiously spreading a quiet feeling of connection and understanding.

Somewhat more reserved at first, Duncan, Hemphill, Forrest, Smith and Lindsey opened up as the show went on with the cheers of good friends, old fans and new listeners. They were playing and reverberating off of the crowd as much as it echoed back in a reciprocal relationship of excitement and energy that turned Olde Club into a small corner of song and dance and youthful idealism. “There were so many things that had gone wrong before the show started and I was really worried, but it was so fun and great that people responded so well to original music,” Hemphill said.

Everyone truly did respond well to the music. Neal Dandade ‘06, who came from Chicago just to see the concert, said, “It was really a great show and they had all of us in the audience engaged — it was fantastic.” Expertly interacting with the crowd and each other, smoothly transitioning between songs and creating the perfect atmosphere of heartfelt sincerity and casual fun, I Saw The Bloodied Snow smoothly crafted instruments and voices into a sound distinctly unique that is part Beirut, part Mirah (especially when she sings with The Black Cat Orchestra) but really entirely their own. Unlike many college bands, the band sounds new, refreshing and different, not like an imitation of whatever bands Pitchfork is raving about at the moment. Rising and falling, flickering, creeping up and swelling up in symphonic moments of Eastern European interludes and retreating back into sparse minimalism, I Saw The Bloodied Snow’s songs offer a sound that is melodious and memorable and, quite simply, very good.

For many at Olde Club, the highlight of the performance was the encore. Stomping and clapping out a confident cover of Lil’ Mama’s “Lipgloss,” the band got everyone in the room stomping and clapping and singing along with them. Following their cover of “Lipgloss,” they went into “En Basiant,” an old favorite of twinkling exuberance, happy laughter and the rippling sound of youth and freshness and beauty, of Orange Juliuses on hot summer days, a perfectly appropriate way to wrap up a perfectly wonderful show.

“Since it was the first time we played a full-length show, we really pulled out everything we had,” Duncan said. “There was a contingent of the audience that sang along to our older songs - that was a trip - plus, we played six new songs. Playing new stuff is usually pretty frightening, but also exhilarating when you pull it off and people get into it.” If I Saw The Bloodied Snow But Did Not See the Creature put on such an excellent performance for their first full-length show, it’s safe to say that we can only expect them to get even better and better with every subsequent time take the stage, whether it is at Olde Club or somewhere beyond the confines of Swarthmore’s happy little campus.

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