Dunn Meadow gets shocked

The sound of live indie music echoed throughout campus Saturday.

Student radio station WIUX 99.1 FM and the Business Careers in Entertainment Club combined to host the annual Culture Shock music festival from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday in Dunn Meadow.  

Jen Samson is one of the student organizers of the concert. She said she was happy with this year’s turnout because a downpour of rain had stifled recent incarnations of the event in the past.

“It’s been really great seeing everybody come out here,” she said.

Saturday, sunlight beamed onto the ground, and combined with the remnants of drifting cigarette smoke. The combination created a luminous, hazy effect on Dunn Meadow. This haze settled over the crowd of about 100 people. There was not a drop of rain in sight.

At the mouth of the meadow facing Kirkwood Avenue stood the stage where most of the crowd was condensed. Many bands graced the stage Saturday, including local group Apache Dropout. Anu Nath, also known as Nathan, is a bassist and vocalist of the group.

Resting against the mossy surface of a tree after his performance, he described playing his instrument.

“The bass sort of strips everything down into a really simple level,” he said.

The sound of this group is difficult to describe because it is so intricate, Nath said.

WIUX described the group as “psych-rock veterans who throw every decade into a blender and spit out the best Technicolor smoothie you could ask for.”

The group first got together five years ago, Nath said. While this was not his first time being at Culture Shock, he said this was the first time Apache Dropout had played in the festival, joining event headliners Mikal Cronin and Maps and Atlases.

“I love to play outside,” Nath said. “You get to play really loud. It’s really fun.”

In the five years the members of Apache Dropout have worked together, Nath said they had constantly grown in that time.  

“We’re creating art for the people,” he said. “We want everybody to get together and make something beautiful happen in the world.”