Recycled Percussion Kicks Off Spring Weekend

By banging their drumsticks against pails, empty fuel containers, sheet metal and ladders, the Recycled Percussion rocked the stage of the Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts last night.

The percussion trio, famous for their use of unconventional instruments and their high energy live shows, performed as part of USG's spring weekend kick-off. To begin the event, USG set up booths around Jorgensen where they gave out complimentary bags of spring weekend safety items to UConn students.

Each bag contains a little flashlight, a safety whistle, condoms and a sheet of tips for how to safely survive spring weekend, according to USG senator Stephanie Tine.

Tine said she felt that, as a freshman, the tips were "especially important in educating students about how to behave in order to have fun and still stay safe."

USG president Andrew Marone, an 8th-semester political science major, agreed.

"The most important thing, from USG's point of view, is to preserve student safety and promote student ownership of spring weekend," he said.

Marone said that he believed this attitude was summarized in this year's USG spring weekend slogan, "Our campus, our weekend, our UConn."

Before the Recycled Percussion performance, UConn student Eric Knudsen spoke about one of his close female friends who was raped during spring weekend.

"It's just such a shame. There are so many females on this campus and I wish I could stop something like this from ever happening again," Knudsen said.

After Knudsen's speech, Recycled Percussion entered to the sounds of a helicopter in flight. The Jorgensen stage was lit up with pink, orange, red and blue lights which flashed as the three performers took stage.

One of the drummers, Justin Spencer, began by shouting at students, "Get up out of your seats! This is a damn rock show!"

Many students followed Spencer's order, congregating in the dance floor that surrounded the stage. Spencer and fellow drummer Ryan Vezina began their performance by beating furiously on old trash cans accompanied by background rock music.

"The drummers were playing at a speed that was almost mind-boggling," said 2nd-semester economics major Joe Antelmi.

DJ Todd Griffin announced that Spencer was capable of drumming at the incredibly fast pace of 20 strokes per minute. Vezina also seemed capable of playing extremely fast as the two drummers often played in unison.

In addition to drumming quickly, the percussionists also performed acrobatic stunts, drumming atop ladders. Once reaching the ladders' peaks, the two performers would jump to the ground, allowing their drumsticks to hit against the sides of the ladder as they fell. The audience greeted each stunt with wild applause.

At the end of the performance, USG passed out their 2007 spring weekend T-Shirts. According to Marone, this was done with the help of SUBOG and the Spring Weekend Committee.