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Towards the end of his set, every song that rapper redveil performed turned the crowd into a mosh pit. The artist screamed “JUMP, JUMP, JUMP!” and the audience responded with palpable energy.

This past Saturday, University Union hosted this academic year’s second Bandersnatch concert, with performances from Laura Elliott, Tom The Mail Man and redveil. The event, which has previously been held in Goldstein Auditorium, was moved to the smaller, more intimate setting of the Underground in Schine Student Center.

The last concert in the Bandersnatch series came last semester, as Emotional Oranges, Tommy Lefroy and Froggies delivered indie pop and RnB performances. This semester’s show contained a more versatile mix of indie rock and rap. Upstate New York native Laura Elliott began the show, followed by Georgia genre-fuser Tom The Mail Man and self-produced 18-year-old rapper and headliner redveil.

With the show opening just after 8 p.m., the early turnout in the Underground was sparse, with Elliott’s set being received by just a handful of fans in the front row singing every word. While she performed to a passionate audience, the crowd for her show was far smaller than the next two.

Elliot’s first mainstream exposure came in 2022, after she featured on Lizzy McAlpine’s “weird.” Her debut album came out last April, and like her live performance, it favors a pop rock style similar to Phoebe Bridgers, beabadoobee and Japanese Breakfast.

Elliott’s set trended toward the upbeat rock side, allowing her bassist, guitarist and drummer to shine alongside her. She began her set asking the crowd for more energy, and ended it making sarcastic comments about how great the small audience was.

Following Elliot’s performance was Tom, a 25-year-old from Georgia who has made headway in lanes like trap, bedroom pop and emo rock. His early albums were rooted in rap, but his sound has evolved from that in his recent albums. He credited artists XXXTENTACION and Falling In Reverse as some of the people who inspired him to experiment outside of rap.

Tom the Mail Man brought energy to his performance at Bandersnatch. By the end of his set, the audience was screaming the words of his songs along with him. Isabella Flores | Staff Photographer

Tom spent his performance making sure the crowd was having fun. He moved to the center of the crowd before getting the entire venue to sit down criss-crossed for the heartfelt performance of “Blue Eyes and Backwoods.”

By the final track, Tom found himself back in the crowd again, where he then got everyone to grab onto someone and start running around in a circle. Whether the audience knew the lyrics or not, Tom kept the energy of the crowd high, asking everyone to scream his songs back to him.

When redveil took the stage, the roars from the crowd showed incredible support for the headliner. The Maryland native has grown in popularity in the past year, releasing his standout record “learn 2 swim” on his birthday in 2022.

With three self-produced albums by the age of 18, redveil’s talent was immediately recognized in the industry. In 2022, he collaborated with and went on tour with Denzel Curry. This year, he’s already featured on the new JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown album and released two singles from his upcoming EP “playing w/fire.”

redveil debuted his most recently released tracks, “black enuff” and his verse on “Kingdom Hearts Key” by JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown. He also debuted a few of his newest songs to his Syracuse audience, including an unreleased dance track with production reminiscent of Kaytranada in which redveil repeats “I think I’m running out of f*cks to give.” He could tell how much the fans were enjoying the show, repeatedly asking “can I do one more?”

The fans cheered for every song, showing the most enthusiasm for performances from his last two albums,“Niagara” and “learn 2 swim.” After ending with one of his hits, “Weight,” he quickly changed his mind and opened up a dance circle for an encore.

Published on April 9, 2023 at 10:11 pm