Courtesy of WBOR

Last Friday, Hovvdy performed an hour-long set in the Odeon for WBOR’s annual Fall Concert. Students flocked from Student Night at the Museum to hear the indie pop duo perform songs from their latest album. Released this August, “Big World” features twelve tracks exploring personal growth and the passage of time.

To bring artists to campus each semester, WBOR works with music agencies who provide a list of musical acts within the radio station’s budget. In an interview with the Orient, WBOR station managers Eleanor Adams ’27 and Abhi Peddada ’27 shared how they decided on Hovvdy as this fall’s guest performers.

“One of the management members, [Anne-Sophie Kagan ’27], was really passionate about bringing Hovvdy to campus, but a bunch of people had heard at least one or two songs of theirs,” Adams said.

Adams and Peddada discussed how the station managers attempt to represent the musical tastes of WBOR DJs while also appealing to the broader campus when choosing an artist. Peddada highlighted how WBOR’s smaller budget creates a unique opportunity for the station managers to bring less well-known, but equally talented, artists to campus.

“In general, we are trying to bring a different type of music to campus … to prevent a redundancy in the type of music that we have on campus and create as much variety and excitement and energy as we can,” Peddada said.

Adams also emphasized how the WBOR concerts have the potential to introduce students to artists they would not have discovered otherwise.

“Sometimes we use it as an opportunity to put [an artist] on people’s radars,” Adams said. “Two years ago, we brought Been Stellar, who I think a lot of people had not heard of prior to our show, and I talked to many DJs and … students afterwards who had started listening to them because of the WBOR concert,” Adams said.

For Oliver Brenner-Bates ’27, the Fall Concert was his first time hearing Hovvdy’s music, but the band left him pleasantly surprised.

“I didn’t really know what to expect. [But] I think they brought the energy [and the] crowd brought the energy,” Brenner-Bates said. “[They] started moving a little more halfway through, so that was fun.”

Brenner-Bates described how the night’s atmosphere and the crowd’s collective absorption in the music swayed him to attend more WBOR concerts.

“As someone who didn’t go to concerts regularly, and having really liked this one, I’m definitely going to make a point to go to more now,” Brenner-Bates said.

Adams, Peddada and Brenner-Bates all spotlighted the band’s final song as the highlight of the night. “True Love,” a bittersweet love song, appeared to be a fan favorite for the Bowdoin community.

“People were begging them to play ‘True Love,’ which is not their biggest song, but I think [is] what a lot of people here know. From the second song in, I heard people being like, ‘play True Love, play True Love!’” Adams said.

Anticipating the band’s decision to close the night with the song, Adams and Peddada decided to elevate the moment by changing the lightning.

“Me and [Adams] were scheming throughout the concert about ways to create little moments for people to remember. And so, when we realized that they’re probably gonna end with ‘True Love’, we decided we were gonna switch the lighting for that last song,” Peddada said.

After an Uber mishap getting to campus, Hovvdy enlisted the help of WBOR for a ride. The car ride became an opportunity for WBOR Board members to share their playlist with the band, which included “Little Eyes” by Yo La Tengo, “Sometimes I believe in God (Sometimes I believe in Me)” by Bassvictim and “Dancing in the Club” by This is Lorelei with MJ Lenderman.

“On that car ride, [Kagan] and I practiced our set list while we were driving there, and played it on the way back. We kind of rotated songs, and they were like, ‘Yeah, this is a great one,’” Adams said.

WBOR hopes to bring another concert to campus in the spring, although their artist of choice remains unconfirmed.

“Maybe … another artist that people can crowd surf to,” Adams said.

“Or bust a move to,” Peddada added.