Last Saturday's WBOR concert featuring The Morning Benders reportedly resulted in an altercation between The Milkman's Union and WBOR management. The conflict ensued after WBOR pulled the plug on the Milkman's Union after the band allegedly refused to stop playing.
In the past, The Milkman's Union—composed of Peter McLaughlin '10, Akiva Zamcheck '10, Henry Jamison '10 and Bates graduate Alex Hernandez—has opened for a number of Bowdoin concerts, including last year's WBOR fall concert featuring Deerhunter.
Before the concert, issues arose regarding the show order. The Milkman's Union was originally slated to open for Portland-based artist Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, who was to be followed by The Morning Benders, an up-and-coming indie rock band. The Milkman's Union, however, requested that they play after Lady Lamb.
"Both we and Lady Lamb preferred to have the concert order be Lady Lamb, us, and then Morning Benders," wrote McLaughlin in an e-mail to the Orient. "But for some reason, despite both of our wishes, the WBOR station managers continuously refused."
According to WBOR management, Lady Lamb (a.k.a Aly Spaltro) did not want to play before The Milkman's Union. She reportedly communicated her preference to WBOR concert manager Will Albuquerque '11.
"Lady Lamb had contacted Will separately saying that she did want, in fact, to go second, but didn't want to put up a fight against Peter," said WBOR station manager Jillian Eddy '12. Eddy said that McLaughlin contacted her the day of the concert with his request to play second. She said that she told him the order might be negotiable if Lady Lamb personally contacted Albuquerque to that effect.
"To my knowledge, she never did," said Eddy. Albuquerque declined to comment due to personal ties with both WBOR and The Milkman's Union.
"The day of the show, Peter said to Will Pugh that I had given them permission to go second, which I felt was not what I said," Eddy continued. "Peter tried to tell Will that it was in their contract to go second."
Eddy said WBOR contacted Student Activities Program Advisor Christine Drasba, who assists WBOR with contracts. According to Eddy, the contract said that Milkman's Union was set to go on at 8 p.m.
At 8 p.m., when WBOR wanted The Milkman's Union to take the stage, the band delayed, said Eddy.
McLaughlin said that Lady Lamb was running late, and that his band was encouraged to go on late and to play a long set by WBOR and the Office of Student Activities.
"Aly was very late for the concert, due to the fact that she was in the hospital caring for a friend," wrote McLaughlin. "As a result, both Will, the WBOR concert director, and Christine Drasba from the student activities office agreed that we should go on late and play a long set so that there was no dead air while waiting for Aly to arrive."
WBOR and The Milkman's Union had different understandings of the Moonlighting Production Company's restrictions on the concert's duration.
"Both Christine and Will assumed there would be no problem pushing back the concert time with Moonlighting," wrote McLaughlin. "What we did not know at this point was that Moonlighting had not been willing to budge about the show-timing."
"Moonlighting said that they needed the concert over by 11 p.m., and [The] Morning Benders, being [the] main act, needed to get on as close to 10 p.m. as they possibly could," Eddy said.
"It's not [the place of] a hired act to make the decision when to go on," said Eddy. "We were trying to get them on stage as quickly as possible."
Eddy said that she told the Milkman's Union that if they went on late, they would not be able to play for "a full hour" because Lady Lamb, despite having missed the soundcheck, was still expected to arrive and start playing at 9 p.m. as planned.
The Milkman's Union took the stage at 8:45 p.m., according to Eddy, and began to play.
When Lady Lamb arrived, WBOR representatives said they tried to get The Milkman's Union off the stage so that she could go on.
"I went over to the side of the stage and was yelling Peter's name and trying to his attention; he wouldn't look over at me," said Eddy. "Peter, in [Aly's] words, forcefully signaled that they were going to play two more songs. I angrily motioned that the set is over; they signaled one more song. After that one song, they kept playing."
"[Moonlighting] said that if Milkman's Union kept going, we could cut the sound. The Morning Benders manager supported this, and we gave the go ahead. Sound and lights were cut," Eddy said.
"With two songs left in our set, two of the station managers signaled to me that we were done," McLaughlin said. "I motioned that we were going to play two more songs, finishing up the hour set we were allotted in our contract. We had of course been told to play a long set, and we had left some of our best material [until] the end. With about 30 seconds left in our last song, they pulled the plug on us."
"I went to help Jill get [The Milkman's Union] off stage," said Pugh. "There was both verbal and physical confrontation on the part of the band. Merchandise was thrown into the audience; I took that as a 'we want to make everyone happy with our performance, we're angry, and we want to take up the stage a little bit more.'"
"In order to give the Morning Benders the hour and a half that was in their contract, Aly's set was shortened to 15 minutes," wrote McLaughlin.
According to WBOR management, tensions persisted as the stage was being disassembled.
"Two of the band members came back; one was more confrontational than the other; both appeared to be under some form of influence," said WBOR program director Will Pugh '12. "One of them continued to, if not yell, at least admonish some of the management. Will Albuquerque called Security." However, by the time Security arrived, it was too late—the band members had left.
One band member was later barred from campus until further notice.
Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols confirmed this and wrote in an e-mail to the Orient that Security responded to a report of an alleged disorderly person and simple assault of a student in Morrell Lounge, but declined further comment while the matter is being investigated.
"The concert as a whole went very well," said Pugh. "We had a large audience; the main act and Aly were well-received." "It is unfortunate that we had the issues that we did with The Milkman's Union. I can speak for Jill and I—we will not be a part of bringing them back. They were a problem every step of the way for us; I can't imagine us bringing that about all over again."
"A band member has apologized via e-mail and spoken on phone," Pugh said. "I understand that he could be frustrated at the decision... It could undoubtedly be frustrating for a band member for sound to be cut on them and forced off the stage. In that respect, I understand—I don't condone, but I understand. I don't feel there should be any large punishment, or any lasting repercussions."
"The arguments that took place have been amicably resolved and we have arrived at a position of mutual understanding and respect," said The Milkman's Union guitarist, Zamcheck. "WBOR put on a unique musical happening and I hope we get a chance to collaborate on a great show in the future."