Samford’s Commercial Music program has produced another outstanding band: Montague. This group of artists had their second performance as an official band on Oct. 13 at the Christenberry Planetarium with Jake Davenport as an opener. With the concert being held on Friday the 13th, the artists arrived in their best Halloween costumes, which ranged from skeletons to superheroes. Montague thrilled the audience with familiar spooky hits as well as songs written by different members of the band.
Montague started this year as a part of the Commercial Music program, and it is the newest band on campus besides Lakeshore. After auditions, Montague hit the ground running with their work. They began performing together at the beginning of the semester at Harry’s Coffeehouse.
Many of the band members have performed in the past. Kacie Bell, a piano player and vocalist for Montague, actually performed in the planetarium last spring with another group, filled with vocalists, piano and guitar players. Though she said she enjoyed this experience, she thinks Montague provides more options musically.
“It’s been so awesome because we now have a full band and useful band arrangements,” Bell said. “We don’t have to worry about, ‘Will it cross over well? Will it sound as good as the covers we did?’ And we don’t have to worry as much about kind of changing it to make it sound good for the venue.”
This type of seasonal performance is new to the group. Vocalist, guitar, piano and violin player Rebekah Willard explained that everything was very purposeful for this show during the Halloween season.
“This set, obviously with the Halloween costumes and stuff, we had some Halloween input on the songs,” she said. “For this one, we just picked some creepy songs.”
The audience packed out the planetarium, with lines forming outside before the doors were even opened. The stage seemed fairly empty, especially considering how large the group is. However, the musicians began playing, and the vocalists entered through the audience, starting out the show with the iconic theme song from “Ghostbusters.”
Early in the show, the audience was promised a special surprise from Bell. Once members began playing their self-written tracks, Bell came up to play her single, “October,” which was releasing that very night.
“I, in my core, am a Halloween girlie. [I love] everything about it,” Bell said. “It just happened that this happened to be on my release date as well, so it’s just like three things at once. It’s the spooky [season], my single and getting to perform with a group of my friends!”
The show was an undeniable success. Montague was engaging and kept the audience swaying to the familiar tunes as well as the new melodies. Audience members were blown away by the performances and talent brought to the planetarium. Clearly the crowd had fun at the event, but the musicians also appeared to have the time of their lives celebrating Halloween by doing what they loved.
Arts & Life Editor
