‘Come Together’ at Coffeehouse

From The Beatles to One Direction, Liberty let the British invade the Vines Center Saturday, March 29

When the doors of the Vines Center opened an hour before showtime Saturday, March 29, students eagerly pushed their way to the front of the line and quickly filled the stadium to enjoy Student Activities’ (SA) British Invasion Coffeehouse.

As they waited in anticipation of the acts to come, students answered British trivia questions and relished the chance to be seen on the jumbotron, posing for the video cameras and entertaining their classmates.

PERFORMance — James Bond, Queen, Adele and other parts of British pop-culture made appearances in Saturday night’s show.  Photo credit: Courtney Russo

PERFORMance — James Bond, Queen, Adele and other parts of British pop-culture made appearances in Saturday night’s show. Photo credit: Courtney Russo

At precisely 11:30 p.m., a video portraying how the British have invaded America through television and music set the stage for the upcoming acts. Then, the students cheered as David and the Dukes opened by playing the Beatles’ hit song, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

Returning Coffeehouse host Dylan Stine came on stage after the first performance of the night to give his opening speech for the event. Stine explained that SA chose to go with the British Invasion theme to commemorate The Beatles’ first performance in America on the Ed Sullivan Show 50 years ago.

“(The Beatles’ performance started) what is commonly and peacefully known as the British Invasion led by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, and The Kinks,” Stine said. “The British Invasion was the start of, basically, America’s obsession with everything in British culture, including bands that start with the word ‘the.’”

For the next hour and a half, spectators watched performances by the Last Minute Lads, Tea in the Harbor, Melodies from Heaven, London, Argyle Architects, The Dundys and Juan Direction, among others. The bands performed mash-ups of popular songs by British artists, including Coldplay, Adele, The Who, The Beatles, Ellie Goulding and One Direction.

Haley Greene, a sophomore at Liberty and founder of the Faces at Liberty Facebook page, said that this Coffeehouse was one of the best she has seen at Liberty so far. She has been to four Coffeehouse events since becoming a student.

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Between on-stage performances, students in attendance saw videos that depicted anything British, and Stine also found people in the audience to play games like British Trivia or read notecards in British accents.

Greene said her favorite video involved a male student walking around campus grabbing strangers’ hands, titled “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Mark Jones, a senior at Liberty, said he enjoyed the “Doctor Who” enactment video, which featured Johnnie Moore as the Doctor.

“For the people that were Doctor Who fans, it captured the goofiness of the show with references to pretty much everything, combined with a unique Liberty twist, which made it really funny,” Jones said.

Jones said this was the first spring Coffeehouse he attended at Liberty, although he has been to two Christmas Coffeehouses in the past.

“I thought that this Coffeehouse was better than the other Coffeehouses that I’ve been to,” Jones said. “It was more entertaining. It was a little bit longer, (and) I thought the talent was better.”

Toward the end of the night, Stine returned to the stage and thanked everyone who was involved with Coffeehouse for their hard work before introducing the last performance of the night.

“It has been an honor to be here tonight,” Stine said. “Now, we just saw a Beatles song, we started the British Invasion with a Beatles song, so what better way to close out the show (than) with something that is continuing the British Invasion. So, please, welcome to the stage Juan Direction. Pip pip, cheerio and goodnight.”

Juan Direction closed the night with a mash-up of One Direction songs such as “The Story of My Life” and “Midnight Memories.”

For more information on SA events throughout the semester, visit liberty.edu/sa

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