Saturday night was a seductive evening for anyone flirting with the arts scene at Stanford, as Student Organizing Committee for the Arts (SOCA) threw the ubiquitously named Arts Party at Elliott Programming Center. In a gently lit room that smelled of boxed wine, artsy types mingled to the stellar sounds of some of Stanford’s best student bands. Nimbleweed performed folksy, acoustic covers of classic party songs, from AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” to Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Even Handle Me,” as students swayed back in forth holding plastic cups filled with homemade sangria. On either side of the room, partygoers got their hands dirty with art.
At one table, crafty students eagerly popped open the provided shaving cream and paints to make scraps of marbled paper. On the opposite end of the room stood a large poster board with a sign that read “Paint me!” and several took up the chance to contribute their brushstrokes to the communal painting. One girl, dolled up in dark purple beret, sat before the painting for half an hour, painstakingly adding a Tempera face to the board. As Nimbleweed closed out their set and the next band prepared for theirs, Vampire Weekend blasted out of the speakers. The smartly dressed crowd – filled with girls in vintage dresses and boys in fashionable shoes – collectively bobbed their heads to the beat, and some wandered over to the snacks table to nibble on cherries and slices of brie.
The Elliott Programming Center, located on Lake Lag, was a fitting venue for the night, just large enough for the crowd but small enough to foster the kind of intimacy necessary for conversation, with bright white Christmas lights softly illuminating the log cabin-esque room. Next up to perform was well-loved campus band The Sea People, and the crowd gathered close as they rocked out to the fast-paced set. The Sea People’s energy was crazy-high; their guitarist whipped his floppy dark hair – and the crowd – into a frenzy, and the lead singer swayed back and forth as she sang prettily into the microphone. The pleasure of their performance was simply contagious, and partygoers began to dance around the room. In one corner danced a boy in suspenders, glasses and checkered Vans and another with sagging pants and a gold chain; elsewhere, a tall girl in a vintage dress was spun around by an equally stylish friend clad in black. The crowd was a motley crew and a breath of fresh air from the homogenous, scantily-clad masses that tend to dominate Stanford’s Saturday-night social scene.
After The Sea People’s exciting performance, the evening’s coordinators shuffled the crowd to one side of the room, clearing out space for dance ensemble DV8 to perform a hot routine to a mix of familiar frat party hip-hop. The evening then took on a coffeehouse vibe as dreamy-eyed soloist Stephen Henderson ‘11 sang and strummed an acoustic cover of Jeff Buckley’s haunting “Hallelujah.”
The night’s closing act was the always kick-ass duo Sex Ray Vision. Once again, the crowd went wild, dancing freely with hearts throbbing and temples sweating, and when charismatic rapper Brian Yoo ’11 announced they were done, the crowd begged for one more song. It was the mark of a killer party – no one wanted it to end. The Arts Party was a smash success, a colorful night full of creativity, cool cats and first-class performances that left everyone asking for an encore.