Story by Cole Knutson
Photos by Rachel Baker
What was a classroom just hours earlier was invaded by local student band Puff Puff Beer for a concert at the Living-Learning Center (LLC) performance hall on Wednesday February 13. Students gathered around the stage as colorful alternating lights shined on the band and music reverberated throughout the small venue.
The band has a unique sound. It is essentially alternative rock with obscenely playful rap lyrics. Puff Puff Beer describes their music as the result of “Lil B and Dan Auerbach [having] a love child.” This is certainly a lofty claim, but listening to their music, it starts to make sense.
“It’s easy,” vocalist Antione Simmons says of his band’s music. “[It’s like] when you wake up in the morning and there’s a twelve pack of PBR next to you. Just feel good music.”
Simmons sang about white girls spending their Dad’s money as well as about waking up next to girls who aren’t models, but are “well fed” nonetheless. The crowd of UO students responded particularly positively to one song that Simmons coined as “The Hilyard Anthem.”
The singer developed a relationship with the audience as well, stepping off stage and—near the crowd for this one—singing that “the good times are killing me my friend.” The crowd joined in with a rhythmic clap as Simmons repeated the hook “there’s no more alcohol.”
Puff Puff Beer’s lyrics cater to the need for shenanigans in college students. The lyrics may come off as offensive at times, but that’s just the Lil B in them.
Simmons says that the band’s music is made with people like students in mind.
“[It’s for] people that want to have a good time, people that aren’t afraid to get down,” he explains. “The energy of the student population is on another level.”
The band does anything but take itself seriously. The drummer wore a pink Hawaiian shirt, the bassist wore a black long-hair wig and the keyboardist stepped on stage dressed in a Pikachu costume. It was the energetically ignorant attitude of the musicians and comical lyrics that contributed to a fun atmosphere for the audience.
The venue was not packed, but there were still people getting down. The event was planned and promoted by the UO Cultural Forum, which plans events that allow students to gather and enjoy things such as music and art. Sam Arabian, the Regional Music Coordinator for the Cultural Forum, says the event is intended to bring people together.
“It’s a community event to bring people together,” Arabian says. “We want people to come in, have a good time, and meet the band. It shouldn’t be so foreign.”
The local band Puff Puff Beer was the opening act for the New York band Ghost Beach, who was on a west coast tour. The concert was free and open to anyone.
