BY ANNA ZALOKOSTAS

In print | March 27, 2008

Warming up the audience with swirling melodies, tinkering guitars, a resonant accordion and youthful sincerity, Swarthmore’s very own toy band I Saw the Bloodied Snow But I Did Not See the Creature opened up Saturday’s Olde Club performance on a familiar note of offbeat beauty and wistful whimsy — Stephanie Duncan ‘08, Nick Forrest ’08 and Bizzy Hemphill ’08 played old favorites to an intimate crowd of friends and fans who sang along, cheered them on and were, by the end, sad to see them go. While the stony space of Olde Club flittered with people, I Saw the Bloodied Snow endearingly inspirited the crowd and left everyone wanting to hear more. Always a Swarthmore favorite, the band’s contingent group of fans was, as usual, singing along as they closed their set with “En Basiant,” a song of twinkling exuberance and chiming prettiness.

Though I Saw the Bloodied Snow did not return for an encore and instead left their fans with a promise to come back soon, Philadelphia-based indie rock swing band Jotto returned to Olde Club’s stage for the second week in a row after The Teeth, who were originally scheduled to open for White Rabbits, cancelled at the last minute. Jotto, now having reached the status of familiar territory at Olde Club, was eagerly greeted with warm cheers of recognition, appreciative applause and the kind of friendly smiles reserved for moments of mutual gratitude. Whirling through songs with clattering, jangly guitars, emphatically pattering synth keys and rumbling percussion, Jotto played off of the crowd’s enthusiasm and kept the energy level high throughout their entire set; both returning fans and newcomers enjoyed the band’s danceable, restless, softly clashing music. “Jotto was really fun. The front man and lead singer, [Aaron], had really great stage antics,” Jeff Sloan ’09 said. “He had this almost animalistic stage presence that I really liked.”

While the audience swayed, clapped and stomped along to Jotto’s own songs, it was their upbeat, clattering, electronic cover of “Stand By Me” that truly got everyone in Olde Club excited about the music. “The keyboardist, [Matt], is one of the real talents in the band, and so it was nice to see the spotlight all on the keyboardist when they covered ‘Stand By Me,’” added Sloan.

Following Jotto’s intimate performance, White Rabbits took the stage as Olde Club for a show that was intensely rhythmic, sweepingly ornamental, fluttering with multiple layers of trembling riffs and sinking into catchy hooks. Starting off by playing “While We Go Dancing” early on in their set, White Rabbits got the room moving early on with a song full of rippling keyboard, insistently pounding drums, reverberating guitars and a fun, jaunty beat. Plunging into their hit “The Plot,” the band kept the rhythm going with the song’s dramatic percussion, tinkering, staccato piano and thumping guitar before tapping out a new song for the crowd that was received warmly and enthusiastically.

Strumming out a version of “Maggie’s Farm” and ultimately ending with “Kid On My Shoulders,” White Rabbits topped off their performance in a flurry of pattering drums, crescendoing keyboard, headrush sonics and twirling layers of rumbling harmonies. “I thought ‘Kid On My Shoulders’ was fantastic,” Madalyn Baldanzi ’08 said about the ending. “It built very well and was perfectly aggressive in its execution.”

Though the performance fell flat at times and the crowd’s interest and engagement occasionally faltered, White Rabbitsput on a solid performance of fun, youthful and danceable indie rock. Old fans of the band enjoyed seeing them perform a good balance of old and new songs and show off their mottled medley of instruments and voices in the intimate space enclosed within Olde Club’s walls while students unfamiliar with the band’s music were still able to enjoy a fun night of spirited dancing to the driving, crashing melodies of White Rabbits.

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