A night of charity and community for three local bands became a testament to the music they make and the connections they are building.
The venue? Boiling hot. The room? At capacity. The anticipation? Buzzing. The concert lineup at O’Brien’s Pub on March 8 included Aedan MacDougall, Whiskey Ginger, and Night Hawk. In addition to being a night of incredible music, a portion of the proceeds from the performance went to Amica, a legal aid organization for immigrants in the DMV area: Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Starting the night was Aedan MacDougall and his band, who performed together for the first time outside of the walls of Berklee College of Music. Their music is reminiscent of British rock in the 1960s, featuring complex melodies and dynamic use of their guitar pedal effects. With their coordinated suits and impeccable rhythmic timing, the effort they put into their first performance paid off.
When Brooklyn-based Whiskey Ginger took the stage next, the crowd started jumping immediately. Led by the vocal powerhouse Emily Pitcairn, Whiskey Ginger met the energy of Aedan MacDougall’s band and ran with it. Throughout their set filled with intricate bass lines and well-executed dynamic variation, the band told jokes and emphatically criticized “this fascist regime of a government,”emphasizing the need for the night’s charity. The passion for their music and their activism was only matched by the cheers of the crowd.
The final act of the evening was Night Hawk, a band that was once based in Portland, Maine, but is now semi-based in D.C. The band has goals of one day all being in the same city again, but for now, their music continues to bring the musicians together. Members include Peyton Semjen on vocals, Colter Adams on vocals and rhythm guitar, Emma Chun on violin, Shea Sewall on bass, Alexander Kozic on lead guitar, and Courtney Burnett on drums. While reunited, Sound of Boston had the opportunity to sit down with the band on Zoom before their show and ask them a few questions.
Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Lucy Humphrey (LH): How would you describe your music without using any genre names?
Colter Adams (CA) : I would say warm, lively. You could even say mellifluous. And I would say a little unpredictable too, maybe.
LH: How did all of you meet?
Peyton Semjen (PS): So we started as an indie rock cover band up at Bowdoin College in Maine. And that was with originally Shea, Alex, Coulter, and I, and then a couple other players. Then we met Courtney when we started writing original music and became Night Hawk. About a year and a half ago, Colter and I moved down to D.C., and on my first day of work, I met Emma, who told me that she played violin, and I immediately invited her to be a full time member of the band.
CA: It’s really, really nice to be on tour together because we haven’t been in the same place really since the summer. And we’re hoping to change that soon. But for now, this is kind of like the window where it’s like, “oh! The band is together!”
LH: You are raising money for Amica on this tour – how did that decision come about?
PS: Colter, Emma, and I are based in the DMV right now. And I started volunteering for Amica because I was wondering “what can I do right now to be a helpful voice or anything in this situation?” This situation being that our neighbors and immigrants in our community who are so vital for our community are being taken, deported, detained, and brutalized. I think as musicians, it’s so easy to be super indulgent and kind of in your own world. But my favorite thing about being a part of an artistic community is being super open to the world around you and recognizing the context that you’re in and using your voice and your art to help. Raising money for Amica is honestly the least that we can do.
LH: It seems like in the local scene, the bands are doing as much as they can to support their communities.
PS: I think it’s such a symbiotic relationship – community and music. We depend on everyone that comes to the shows, and in the same way, I think they depend on us, whether it be entertainment or community. It’s not just playing a show and getting off stage and being like, “all right, I did my piece. I’m done, peace out.” It’s like, “oh shit, there’s other people here, and they’re putting in all of their art and their voice, and there’s people in the audience that came and took money out of their bank account to be here.” It’s recognizing that and being super conscious of the environment we’re working with.
LH: Do you have a favorite moment of the tour so far?
Courtney Burnett (CB): Yeah, I really, really loved the Portland show so much. I feel like sometimes the first couple of shows don’t really feel real. It kind of took me a second for my body to realize that we are on tour because I was just in school like five seconds ago. And I felt so present in that show, and it felt like such a warm environment.
Emma Chun (EC): For me, it would have to be the first show that we did in Burlington. We were all being dropped into tour from our regular lives, but the second we started playing, it was like, “this is just the best thing ever. We’re so lucky that we get to do this and we get to do it six more times after this.”
Alexander Kozic (AK): We were in Portland just walking to the show, and Courtney, Emma, and I got into a snowball fight with some locals. It was so much fun and then we had pizza with the whole band together. It’s really awesome that we’re all hanging out together now.
CA: Yeah, it’s a pretty sweet dynamic when your favorite people are also your favorite musicians and are also your best friends.
Shea Sewall (SS): I think mine is after the Burlington show. We had a four and a half hour drive in the middle of the night, and we stopped and got some fried chicken and just talked about the music, how much fun the show was, and that’s what tour is all about.
LH: What comes next for Night Hawk?
PS: We’ve got a new EP coming out, probably the next couple months. We never stop writing, and we won’t stop making music. We’re trying to find a world where we’re not all hundreds of hundreds and hundreds of miles apart from each other so that we can really dive in. The first album that we wrote is such a testament to every single person on this call’s artistry, but each song sort of had its own insane process for how it came together because we’re far apart. Everyone ended up contributing something crucial to it, but it wasn’t like every week we’re getting together and working these songs out. I think it would be really fun to try an album like that where we’re all in it from the beginning, writing together, and fully involved in the whole recording process because everyone on this is such an extraordinarily talented songwriter.
Everything the band talked about in their interview was readily apparent on stage at O’Brien’s. Setting up, the band was chatting and laughing, and when Burnett started the first song with a drum solo, the other members were ready to jump in. Their sound filled the room; each instrument was essential to the sound, and they all got their moment to shine. The band played their first song seamlessly, and you couldn’t tell that they’ve been living in separate cities for the last few years. When Adams and Semjen hit the vocal pinnacle of their song “Green Eyed,” they turned and smiled at each other, revelling in the beauty and synchronicity of their performance.
When asked what is their favorite song to play live, both bassist Sewall and guitarist Kozic said “Roadkill,” and hearing it live highlighted the depth of the emotion contained within its lyrics. The pain of the song translated beautifully into a live performance, and the audience joined them in their anger as they sang along. A track that opened with a hauntingly beautiful guitar riff slowly seamlessly transitioned into “Scary Movie,” which built in intensity until it reached a chaotic culmination. By the end of “Scary Movie,” Kozic and violinist Chun were kneeling on the ground, absolutely shredding their solos, and the crowd went wild.
Immediately after “Scary Movie,” Adams on the rhythm guitar switched with Burnett on the drums. When they made the switch, Semjen joked that Sewall on bass was going to sing instead, and Sewall shook his head. A clear joke between the band members, Night Hawk was having fun messing around on stage as they got ready for their next song. This track, “Skyward,” is about a couple, afraid of falling in love and toeing the line of self-destruction. Since Adams moved to the back of the stage to play the drums while Semjen stayed up front, the distance between the two singers physically on stage highlighted the discord between the couple in the song. But there was no discord to be found among the band members on stage, and the performance perfectly demonstrated the technical and emotional complexity of the song.
For their final song, Night Hawk performed “Winter in New England,” a track about the angst of youth that is exacerbated by the dark winter nights of Massachusetts – something almost everyone in the crowd could relate to. But when the set ended and the band left the stage, the cheers of the crowd brought them back for “Making a Fool.” An upbeat song with a driving tempo and easy-to-yell lyrics, it was the perfect track to end the evening: the audience was two-stepping, Kozic jumped into the crowd for his solo, and the whole venue was singing along.
In addition to the incredible music that they make, Night Hawk is a band of people that use their music to build and support their community, both within the music industry and their neighbors at large. Their camaraderie with their fellow musicians was apparent, whether it was how Adams sought out Aeden MacDougall to compliment how “their sound had really blossomed” or how as a band they spoke highly of Whiskey Ginger during their interview. With a discography centered around the multifarious human experience and composed of exquisite melodies, Night Hawk interacts with the world as described in their music: by strengthening connections and bringing joy and harmony to those around them.