Saturday night witnessed a Cave performance the likes of which Carleton had never seen before. It was Mucca Pazza, a so-called "circus punk" band with 30 members, a huge sound and an interactive style, which was responsible for the blowing of numerous Carleton students' minds that night.
It all started as grown men and women dressed as cheerleaders pushed through the packed crowd, shaking pom-poms in the air. Next, musicians in eyeliner and tattered, mismatched marching-band uniforms began playing from all corners of the room, slowly making their way to the stage.
Once there, they started to play something that sounded like a Southern college marching band crossed with punk rock crossed with klezmer, with intense beats that kept the crowd dancing despite the sweaty, tightly-packed conditions (students were standing on every available surface in order to fit in). Every so often a few band members would venture out into the crowd and interact – this reporter got to shake one of the cheerleaders' pom-poms during one of the songs. At one point the crowd was instructed to kneel down as the music got quieter and stand up again as it got louder; at another we were conducted in shout-singing by a mildly deranged-looking "student conductor".
The end came too soon, and rather abruptly. I'm sure I wouldn't be alone in saying the Cave should definitely try to bring Mucca Pazza back at some point in the future.
