After a dreary day of Monday classes, students from across the University of Michigan’s campus filtered in through the doors of the Power Center. As people took their seats, peers waved at one another, with a feeling akin to a high school pep rally. Student members of the concert organizing club, Big Ticket Productions, could be found milling about, ensuring that the event ran smoothly.
Female singer-songwriter DINER opened the night with her impressive talent and cheery spirit. Prancing around the stage in turquoise cowboy boots and a cherry-red hat, she brought country to the city of Ann Arbor. Her vocals were effortless and her attitude humble. She declared her stage name was DINER because “I grew up a diner girl and I’ll only ever be just a diner girl.” Yet the crowd dancing along to her songs challenged that statement.
After DINER came the headliner of the night, Del Water Gap. Known as Samuel Holden Jaffe, Del Water Gap currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. The intimate feel of his music is furthered by the fact that Jaffe himself writes, sings, and produces all of his own work.
Left: DINER takes a moment in between songs to hand out trucker hats to the audience at the Power Center Monday. Grace Lahti/DAILY. Buy this photo. Right: DINER sings at the Power Center Monday. Grace Lahti/DAILY. Buy this photo.
Throughout the night, Del Water Gap interacted with the audience and made the Power Center feel like an altogether smaller, closer venue. He took a moment in the beginning, asking for “gossip” from the student body sitting in front of him. In lieu of gossip, he got many song requests and a selfie with someone in the front row. Maybe another time he can hear the weekend dirt from Scorekeepers.
Del Water Gap danced across the stage, his light jumpy movements directly juxtaposed by his all black outfit. The audience followed his energy like a leading torchlight, with calm sways for somber melodies, and jumpy headbanging for poppy dance tunes.
The night finished with two of Del Water Gap’s biggest hits, “All We Ever Do Is Talk” and “Perfume.” For “All We Ever Do Is Talk,” he took a moment before the song to teach the audience the resounding “oh, oh, oh” bridge, eventually filling the auditorium with a chorus of 1,000 voices. Just about as many students could be heard singing along to the chorus of his hit “Perfume,” though every student was dancing regardless of how many lyrics they knew. Del Water Gap ensured that everyone in the Power Center felt included when he jumped down from the stage and ran up and down the aisle ways, interacting with as many students as he possibly could within the bounds of the microphone wire tethering him to the stage.
The final strums of a guitar were undoubtedly the reason many students came out Monday night for an encore of “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat.” The verbose title can be found on just about every indie-pop playlist on Spotify, and is the song that most prolifically boosted Del Water Gap’s fame.
As the lights came back up, the audience of students broke into chatter and exited the Power Center. Whether their next destination was to the library to study or their beds for the night, the last notes from Del Water Gap remained stuck, circling through their minds.
“And it hits me
I don’t want anybody else touching you like I do
Like I do, like me”
Senior Photo Editors Grace Lahti and Josh Sinha can be reached at glahti@umich.edu and jsinha@umich.edu.
