By Patricia Wright

In my humble opinion, the Architecture in Helsinki concert was one of the most successful musical events held by Macalester in the four years that I’ve attended this college. Aside from the unfortunate incident of the lights being on throughout all three bands’ sets, the concert went off without any other major problems. Compared to other events, such as Springfest and Fallfest, there was a larger number of attendees from outside the Mac community. This may have been because it was advertised in both City Pages and VitaMN and because the ticket prices were relatively cheap. I hadn’t heard of Swedish three-piece Lo-fi Fink before this concert, but they were surprisingly talented and just the right amount of dancey/techno. I had listened to Dom a bit within the last year and they were also very fun to listen to, with my personal favorites being “Living in America,” “Jesus,” and “Bonchicha.” Outside the basketball court/stage doors, there was a respectable amount of band merch being sold, complete with several t-shirt choices, posters and CDs, as well as vinyl. Architecture in Helsinki had the largest turnout of all three bands, which was heartening considering they are a somewhat obscure indie-pop band from Melbourne, Australia. They’ve been one of my favorite bands since my high school days, circa 2006, and I was very excited about finally seeing them perform live. They played several songs from their newest album, Moment Bends, as well as some old favorites such as “Do the Whirlwind” and “It’s Five.” The lead singers were very charming with their stage banter and managed to get some great crowd participation going near the end. They also stuck around to talk to people, sign autographs, and take pictures near the merchandise table, a courtesy for fans that I think not enough bands take the time to do. Overall it was a highly enjoyable musical occasion and a successful effort on the part of the Program Board, but especially Noah Koch ’14 and Mickey Davis ’13, who booked all of the bands. Hopefully there will be many more concerts like this one in the future at Macalester.