After months of planning, Seattle University’s Student Events and Activities Council (SEAC) hosted their annual spring concert, Quadstock. While Quadstock looked a little different this year, the show’s goal to honor the Battle of the Bands winner came to fruition. 

Battle of the Bands winner, Kekoa Vierra, performed; Her performance was then followed by sets from UMI and AJR. 

After COVID-19 shut down spring quarter 2020, SEAC did not have a chance to host Quadstock last year. Instead, they honored the Battle of the Bands winner of 2020 during this year’s performance. Last year’s winner Goodwill Gold was the first performance of the night, playing a few original songs full of guitar solos and vocals. 

Third-year Psychology major, Vierra, was next to take the virtual stage with three songs, two of which she has been singing since she can remember. Vierra first belted out Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity”, then a cover of “Session 32” by Summer Walker. She ended her performance with a song from one of her inspirations, Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.” 

Vierra finds singing to be a form of therapy, and only recently started promoting herself on social media and through Battle of the Bands.

“I started taking voice lessons when I was younger, but no one ever really knew I sang,” Vierra said. “I didn’t really transition into singing in front of people until I incrementally started posting videos of myself singing on my Instagram stories, or just little things here and there. Battle of the Bands was the first big thing I’ve done to promote my voice.”

After Vierra’s performance, Seattle based artist, UMI, took the stage performing live acoustics. UMI also added in some forms of mediation into her performance encouraging the audience to breathe and relax while listening to her sing. UMI’s performance was followed up by a live Q&A with audience members. 

Third-year History and Sociology double major, Angela Romano is SEAC’s Director of Events. This year, Romano did a lot of behind the scenes work for Quadstock and helped plan the event. One of Romano’s favorite parts of Quadstock was Umi’s performance. 

“It was a lot of fun. I was able to watch with some friends and we all had a good time,” Romano said. “I loved UMI’s set. It was very relaxing and I thought it was a really nice contrast to AJR’s Q&A and set.”

After UMI answered audience questions, AJR took over. Dressed in Redhawk gear, the trio sat down with Shannon Christensen, the Executive Director of SEAC, for their Q&A. Following the questions, audience members were greeted with their pre-recorded performance. AJR performed some of their top hits as well as many songs from their latest album “OK Orchestra.” 

Fourth-year Management student and SEAC Quadstock Co-Chair, Serena Au, worked for over eight months to book AJR for the event. Going back and forth between a few options, Au had decided she wanted to create a chill vibe for the night where people could sit down and relax while listening to the music. 

“I talked to one of the booking agents we work with and they thought UMI would be perfect for our opener, so we booked her in November,” Au said. “Talking to the booking agent, I decided to go for it and book AJR. I really love their music and they’re just super cool people. They perform really well and their stage presence is amazing so I was like ‘let’s go for it.’”

After planning an event she knew she would enjoy, Au was grateful to see all of the positive comments during the event. Both Au and Romano were thrilled with how Quadstock went as the audience really seemed to enjoy both of the Battle of the Bands winners, UMI and AJR.