Local band rocks the Haus of music

Good music, good food, and good company, what else could someone ask for. This was the atmosphere at the Pioneer Haus on Nov. 11.

Campus Programming and Relations held their second Haus of Music event, this time featuring a local band called The Initial First. The band consisted of four senior University of Wisconsin-Platteville students: Dayton Wellner, Bret Bender, Garrett Holm and Austin Wiese.

“The entire booking process went through Austin,” senior building construction management and drummer Dayton Wellner said. “We wanted to help CPR and we were glad we were able to.”

The crowd was a lot larger than the last Haus of Music event and Wellner said CPR thanked them for drawing in the crowd. In addition to the performance by The Initial First, the Pioneer Haus restaurant also tried out a nacho supreme special to see how many students would be interested in buying it. It seemed to go over well because now with the nacho supreme on the menu full time.

While the large crowd munched down on their nachos, The Initial First performed an hour long set. The band played a variety of covers ranging from rock, funk, alternative and one original song. The audience seemed to enjoy the fact that they were able to sing along to nearly every song the band played.

“I knew every cover they performed and it was great to sing-along,” senior biology major Halley Planinsheck said.

The band played covers such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California” and Vance Joy’s “Riptide.” They also played some older covers from groups like Weezer and Green Day, which seemed to get the best reaction from the audience.

“I knew some of the songs [they played] but I really liked the Green Day song “Holiday” because I knew all the words,” freshman agricultural business major Amanda Shea said.

The stage atmosphere of the show was a little unusual. The band had to play without spotlights because the lights were broken the last time the stage was used and had yet to be fixed. Even with the broken lights, the band still seemed to have a good time performing.

“I have never played with the lights off before, but it was a fun experience,” Wellner said.

Members in the audience didn’t seem to mind the limited lighting at all and were still able to enjoy the show. The band also seemed to enjoy the performance even though the crowd seemed to thin out by the end.

“We have a blast no matter what, whether we are playing for two people or 400. It was cool we were able to get [the Haus of Music] program up and running. We can’t wait to come back,” Wellner said.

The Initial First performs at multiple locations in Platteville. To find out where they are playing next, check out their Facebook page, facebook.com/TheInitialFirst/.