By Nate Stauffer, Business Staff ’16
The Mask and Wig Band is well-known around campus for blowing the roof off the venues of their gigs. On Saturday, November 22, they kept this tradition alive at their annual Kick Off Bash! This is one of the favorite events among members of the undergraduate company, and it did not disappoint. Tons of Penn students showed up at the Tau Epsilon Phi chapter house ready to have their faces melted by our instrumentalists in all their ear-shattering glory.
In building the setlist for the show, Bandleader Wyatt Shapiro and Junior Clubbie Zach Shen took suggestions from the rest of the company. They spent hours upon hours whittling down the list to include only the most dynamic, catchy and well-known hits for the party, also taking into account how fun they would be to play. Eventually, they wound up with twenty mind-blowing, dimension-shifting tunes, sure to turn even the most sluggish student into a dance machine.
Over the weeks that followed, all of the Band members worked tirelessly to arrange and rehearse the numbers to perfection. They invited all company members, as well as several wonderful young lady-friends from peer groups like Bloomers Band, Counterparts and Off the Beat, to audition to sing with them. By the time November 22 rolled around, they were refined and ready to rage on the stage.
The crew, with the aid of the underclassmen, set up the venue with platforms, instruments and sound equipment. Junior Jimmy Lengyel, the External Social Chair, coordinated with the brothers of TEP, collaborating to ensure the event would be a success. Finally, the night arrived. Marching in like a troop entering Vietnam, the eight members of the Band (minus Junior Dimitri Antoniou, abroad in Vietnam) took the stage. The rock stars readied themselves as Shapiro coolly whispered…
“1… 2… 1, 2, 3…”
In other news, the TEP chapter house needs a new roof.
