By Setota Hailemariam
“On Mondays we wear black, listen to Fall Out Boy and revisit the music that validated us and got us through our over-emotional, melodramatic preteen years” would’ve been a pretty accurate tagline for Emo Night at MilkBoy ArtHouse April 9 — but a bit too long for a Facebook event title.
The event, which featured three full hours of the loudest, whiniest and finest emo music the 2000s had to offer, was the first of its kind at MilkBoy. Asher Meerovich, DJ of the night, had previously DJed Drake Night a month earlier at the venue, and was the one who pitched the idea of holding a similar kind of event, just with a whole lot more My Chemical Romance.
MilkBoy’s Emo Night was College Park’s answer to the many Emo Nights thrown around the country — in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Washington, to name a few.
People filed in at the night’s start to the sounds of “All That I’ve Got” by The Used and “Addicted” by Simple Plan, with a few singing along but most using the opportunity to grab a drink. They proved that emo comes in a variety of shapes and forms, from the eyeliner enthusiasts to purple-haired punkers to classic T-shirt-and-flannel fellows.
The singalongs of the night began after the room reached capacity, when “In the End” by Linkin Park began playing. Party DJs only play songs everyone knows after a party gets full, and Emo Night was no different, something Meerovich was smart to remember.
After hearing the opening notes of “It Ends Tonight” by The All-American Rejects, one guy in the crowd yelled “No way!” Triggering overwhelming waves of nostalgia was the night’s goal, and that goal was accomplished several times over.
That’s what set this night apart from its counterparts across the nation — it stubbornly stuck to its mission of bringing back fond memories for people, and didn’t relent by playing anything too modern.
“To me … it’s almost like a nostalgia and an enjoyment of things that you enjoyed in the past,” Meerovich said. “So anything too recent, I feel like, doesn’t count, because it might be emo technically, but it’s not in the spirit of the event.”
Most of the dancing, jumping and shrieking of the night came during songs that were crossover hits of the 2000s, like “Don’t Trust Me” by 3Oh!3, “Misery Business” by Paramore and “Shake It” by Metro Station. It made sense to play them because even though all of these artists have enjoyed mainstream success, they are firmly rooted in the emo scene.
Some noteworthy moments of the night included songs that everyone forgot existed, like “Here (In Your Arms)” by Hellogoodbye and “Bulletproof Love” by Pierce the Veil, whose lead singer, Vic Fuentes, was the source of nearly every tween emo girl’s obsession back in the day.
The angst was almost too much to bear during songs like “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” by My Chemical Romance and “Dear Maria, Count Me In” by All Time Low. As the crowd scream-sung their hearts out and moshed as if they were seeing the bands live in concert, you couldn’t help but take a step back and wonder, “What were we all so angry about?”
The beauty of this music is that it is an outlet into which listeners can channel their emotions, however dramatic they might be – something that resonated with audience members over the years and most likely inspired them to attend the event.
Jess George, a junior multiplatform journalism major, said her favorite moment of the night was the final song that came on.
“I feel like it’s kind of hard to top playing “Welcome to the Black Parade” at the very end, with everyone singing it out together — that was really fun,” she said.
Senior economics major Albert Mattheis also enjoyed Emo Night, and said he would come to the event again.
“If this happened every Monday, I would be here when the doors opened,” he said.
Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of Fall Out Boy’s Facebook page.
Setota Hailemariam is a sophomore journalism major and can be reached at setotah98@gmail.com.
