The Graduate Student Organization hosted the semester’s last Stony Brooklyn concert on Friday at the University Café.
More than 150 students—mainly graduate students—were packed into the UCafé to see Milk Dick—a New York City based rock trio who played RockYoFaceCase last spring—and The Pizza Underground, a comedy band featuring “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin. The band covered songs by The Velvet Underground but changed the lyrics to focus on pizza.
The Pizza Underground’s lineup is Matt Colbourn on guitar, Phoebe Kreutz on glockenspiel—a hybrid between a xylophone and keyboards—Austin Kilham on tambourine, Deenah Vollmer on pizza box (she hits a pizza box with a drumstick) and Culkin on kazoo and percussion. All of the members do vocals.
The show was initially scheduled for 8 p.m. and pushed to 10 p.m. due to an event taking place next door in the Union Ballroom. There was free pizza for students who showed up early.
Stony Brooklyn shows take place at the UCafé every other week.
“We had a lot of RSVPs on Facebook, and there are lots of people here two hours before the start,” GSO President Evgenia Sidorova, a political science Ph.D. student, said.
GSO Secretary Mallory Locklear, a neuroscience Ph.D. student, brought The Pizza Underground to GSO’s attention. According to Locklear who is also a staff writer of The Statesman, the booking process took five months.
She credits GSO Productions Manager Mary Garvey for booking Milk Dick, and many previous Stony Brooklyn bands. Locklear refers to booking The Pizza Underground as “the crowning achievement of my graduate career.”
“I just handed in my dissertation today, so this is like my reward,” Locklear said.
Milk Dick consists of Mike Delaney on guitar and vocals, Megan Luz on drums, and Brian Indig on bass. The members named The Velvet Underground, The B-52’s, R. Stevie Moore and The Grateful Dead among others as musical influences.
“The students are all open-minded and well-receptive to our type of music. They are all very excited,” Delaney said about the Stony Brook crowd.
The Pizza Underground took the stage around 11:30 p.m. They changed The Velvet Underground’s “One of These Days” into “Cheesy Days,” “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” into “I’m Beginning to Eat the Slice,” to name a few.
The Pizza Underground declined an interview. In fact, Culkin has not spoken publicly about his involvement with the band since their formation earlier this year. The band just completed a tour around the United States, and will soon perform in the United Kingdom. Milk Dick plans to tour the East Coast this summer.
