A&O Productions turned Evanston SPACE into a rave Thursday night during the entertainment programming student group’s annual benefit concert. A&O dubbed this year’s event The Icebox, featuring performances from two DJs.
The event’s beneficiary was Interfaith Action of Evanston, an organization focused on advocacy and community service run by local faith leaders. The organization manages facilities such as soup kitchens and an overnight shelter. In lieu of paying for tickets, A&O encouraged attendees to make a $5 donation to the charity.
A&O selected Interfaith as the recipient after an executive member grew close to a member of the charity, said Weinberg senior and A&O co-Chair Sereniti Williams.
“We thought that it was a good cause and someone we would love to be supporting, especially during the winter months when having access to a shelter is super vital,” Williams said.
Bienen senior Lucy Rubinstein, under her stage name r00bies4ever, opened the concert, exciting the crowd as attendees continued to trickle in. Her set was inspired by a variety of genres like R&B, hard groove and UK garage, according to Rubinstein.
Rubinstein, who plays venues ranging from house parties to nightclubs such as smartbar and Smoke & Mirrors, said the event was a night she will “never forget.”
“As soon as I stepped off the stage, I knew this was one of my favorite sets I’ve ever played,” Rubinstein said. “The energy in the room was unlike anything I’ve experienced at Northwestern.”
Emcees encouraged students to dance with both DJs as audience members packed the stage at the sold-out event.
Medill senior and A&O Concert Chair Eva Putnam said she led the creative vision for the event with the assistance of both the concert committee and production team.
“We wanted to create something where people in the audience felt very connected to the music and the performer,” Putnam said.
Putnam said the event was inspired by Boiler Room, a concert producing and broadcasting company. Boiler Room hosts events at which attendees stand on the same level as the DJs instead of below them, a setup Putnam said interested her.
For Rubinstein, the dancers in the crowd were part of what made the night special.
“The fact that all of the attendees were super open to my music, curious to see what I was going to play, and then let go and dance, I wasn’t quite expecting that,” Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein was followed by headliner DJ Anastazja, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California. A&O chose her for the event due to her aesthetic and “really interesting sound,” Putman said.
Anastazja’s genre-crossing set included Brazilian house music as well as Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.”
“In general, I would label myself as open format,” Anastazja said. “I don’t really have a limitation when it comes to style.”
Anastazja said she enjoyed returning to her roots of playing for a college crowd and playing near her home city of Chicago.
Like Rubinstein, Anastazja also found the energy of the crowd memorable.
“I actually haven’t played to a crowd that danced to almost every song in a while, so that was also something I was really happy about,” Anastazja said.
Correction: A previous version of the embedded gallery included a misspelling of Lucy Rubinstein’s stage name, “r00bies4ever.” The Daily regrets the error.
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