A music festival organized by students at Glendale Community College, SLUSHFEST, flooded East Roosevelt Street on Saturday night with the sound of local rock bands screaming out their lungs.
A sold-out crowd of more than 30 people stood shoulder to shoulder inside the MySpace art gallery to watch the bands perform. Bodies were jumping, heads were banging, and the music was deafening. The hosts generously provided attendees with complimentary earplugs to use at will.
At one point, a mosh pit broke out during the set of hardcore metal band Riverview Ward. The band's lead vocalist, Dominick, told the crowd to be careful due to the venue's small size.
“Aye I appreciate you guys moshing and having high energy and shit but be careful when you’re doing that cause this place is small as fuck," he said.
The festival embodied the local rock scene in Phoenix. Eight bands performed, each with a unique style ranging from alternative rock to punk to heavy metal.
One of the acts, The First Pancake, plugged in a griddle and began making pancakes in the middle of their performance. Jackson Chavez, who is the “chef” in the band and doesn’t actually play an instrument, said he came up with the idea one day and decided to run with it.
“You ever like, have a vision?" Chavez said. "That’s what it was."
Isaac Smith, the creator of SLUSHFEST, was able to host the festival at MySpace because of a connection he has with an employee there. The venue physically represented the chaos and angst unleashed by each band throughout the night. It was smaller than the average living room, and the walls, adorned with graffiti and color-changing lights, were partially made of plywood.
Smith has been involved in the local music scene in Phoenix for years. He’s had the idea of putting together a music festival for a while now, but he said he had no idea if it would be successful.
“I was thrilled when the first five people bought tickets, so you can’t even imagine how excited I was when I got the DM that was like ‘Hey, I just tried to buy a ticket, but it says it’s sold out,’” Smith said.
SLUSHFEST was more than a celebration of the local rock scene in Phoenix. It was also a reunion and collaboration between several GCC students, where Smith studies audio engineering and recruited fellow students to volunteer at the event.
Additionally, five of the eight bands that performed had members who were current or former students at GCC. Gerardo, the frontman of Ollie’s Honey, graduated the night before performing.
But even the bands not affiliated with GCC in any way said they greatly appreciated the opportunity to play, and thanked Smith and the MySpace art gallery for helping keep the local rock scene and “DIY community” alive.
“This is such a fun festival. It’s been so great, and everyone’s been so nice,” said Sophie, the lead singer of Silverface Twin. “I really enjoyed sweating here with you all tonight.”
Given the venue selling out and virtually everyone at the festival agreeing that it was a hit, Smith said he is already thinking about organizing another festival in the future.
“I’ve thought about SLUSHFEST 2,” Smith said. “Seeing the space and seeing how quickly it sold out, I’m thinking a bigger venue… just anything that roots us in this community we have and continues to let it blossom and just letting people see very good music.”
Anyone planning to attend SLUSHFEST 2 only needs to know one thing: take the complimentary earplugs.
A couple more photos from the event:
