On Saturday Feb. 22, three of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s most talented bands graced the stage at Northampton’s beloved, historic downtown venue: the Iron Horse Music Hall. Local Mojo presented the showcase, which featured performances by bands South Pleasant Revival, Grand View Point and Stock Goblin.
Local Mojo, an independent, student run organization at UMass, has been working to support, promote and grow local musicians on campus since 2021. The organization provides resources and networking opportunities for local musicians, photographers, videographers and other types of artists in the music industry.
Local Mojo’s goal is to bring “enthusiastic music lovers from different backgrounds together to form a community and a platform to celebrate the local music scene,” according to the mission statement on its website. “We bring audiences to the musicians and musicians to the audiences. Everyone wins.”
I, for one, can safely say that it did indeed feel like a win for everyone at the Iron Horse this past weekend. The bands delivered spirited, show-stopping performances, while the crowd kept energy levels high, creating an immersive and atmospheric experience.
The night started out strong, with an electrifying performance by South Pleasant Revival. Grace Kerlin (lead vocals) sang her heart out on a wide variety of songs ranging across multiple different genres. The group’s performance of Daft Punk’s disco-inspired funk track, “Get Lucky,” was an upbeat and unexpected twist to the group’s primarily rock and roll sound. While the setlist mostly consisted of covers of classic rock songs, the band was sure to include some of their original songs, such as “Pretending” and “Leaving Again.”
South Pleasant Revival’s classic, full-band, rock and roll sound is the result of Kerlin’s dynamic vocals, accompanied by the powerful guitar playing of Henry Eustis and Philip Adams, lively keyboard playing by James Goldbach, the rhythmic, soulful bass lines played by Brenden Mullaney and the driving force of Flynn Duffy on drums. The group’s upbeat energy made for an unforgettable performance.
The second act was Massachusetts-based band Grand View Point. Sharply dressed in coordinating suits, members Ryan Cobbett (lead vocals), George Crichfield (bass), Will Finaldi (guitar) and Ryan Kaplan (drums) made their way to the stage. They started off their set with an energetic cover of “Hard to Explain” by The Strokes. Their electrifying performance brought life into the crowd, captivating the audience with their charismatic, energetic performance. Their set consisted of show-stopping tunes and included two new original songs, “I Don’t Want to Drive” and “You and I.”
After the show, I got a chance to step outside with two of the band’s members, Cobbett and Crichfield, to discuss their performance, gain some insight into the band’s dynamics and inquire about new music the band has planned.
“I feel … I … honestly, I’m on cloud nine. I loved it, that was really fun,” Cobbett said. “The crowd was great … people were just having fun.”
“I felt great. It’s very intense when the crowd is jumping back and everything. That’s the best feeling. We kind of feed off of the crowd’s vibes,” Crichfield said.
Grand View Point has been together for about a year and a half. This is their first performance at the Iron Horse and is one of the bigger shows they’ve gotten to play. They do a lot of shows with Local Mojo, Cobbett and Crichfield told me.
The band recently recorded “I Don’t Want to Drive” and has some other music in the works as well.
The last song the band performed, “You and I,” is coming out later in March. “We’re sending it to get the final touches, we already recorded it so it should be coming out around mid-March maybe, if I were to guess,” Crichfield said.
“We went to so many studios, tried [recording] it so many different ways,” Cobbett explained. “It’s like, music can be really hard, which sucks. We just trial and error, trial and error so many times.”
Before parting ways, the band left with some words of wisdom. “I guess [a] message [to] the fans, don’t give up. We almost did. It’s tough. Recordings tough,” Cobbett said.
The last act to play the stage at the Iron Horse that night was a UMass fan-favorite, Stock Goblin. I got a chance to sit down with members Dylan Waters (lead vocals), David Blair (guitar), Ash Finnegan (bass and keyboard), Declan Thomas (guitar) and Eli Feldman (drums) to chat before their big performance.
“[We’re] excited to play at the Iron Horse,” Feldman said. “It’s just opened up again after a long time and we went to a show here a couple of months ago, so we’re excited to play.”
The band told me a little bit about how they got their start. “It was a night of beers and shots,” Finnegan began, they all laughed. “Well, it started in music appreciation (class),” Finnegan continued. “The best class ever,” Waters interjected. “It was a drunk convo turned real,” Blair said.
“It was like ‘we should start a band,’ like as a joke, when we were drunk and then in the morning [Waters] was like ‘are you guys serious? Because I was serious.’ And I was like ‘yeah’ and [Blair] was like ‘hell yeah,’” Finnegan recounted.
Finnegan continued, “Then we brought in [Feldman], he was originally on bass, we had a different drummer … [Feldman] also plays drums [now]. Then we didn’t have a bassist, so then I learned bass, I was the only keyboardist to start and then I learned bass over the summer.”
“We’re going to be recording a couple songs in the next month or so and then there are two of our newer ones that we’ve been playing for a while, but we just haven’t recorded them yet, so we’re hoping to get those out soon,” Feldman said.
Before wrapping up, the band took a moment to say, “Thanks to the Iron Horse for having us, thanks to Local Mojo for having us, it’s [going] be a good show.”
And it was a very good show. The band delivered a show stopping performance playing covers of crowd favorites, with a few original songs. The band’s chemistry and energy are electric. The group never fails with getting the crowd up on their feet, and they were a perfect act to close out a perfect show.
Victoria Thompson can be reached at [email protected]
