Student bands continue to take centre stage as a staple of the Queen’s community.
When the doors to the newly-renovated JDUC opened on Oct. 17, alumni, students, parents, community members, and University leaders—including Principal Patrick Deane, Chancellor Shelagh Rogers, and Rector Niki Boytchuk-Hale—gathered to celebrate the building’s long-awaited reopening. At the centre of the event was Last Call, a student band whose warm, jazzy covers set an easy tone for the afternoon and softened the space’s glossiness.
Last Call opened with The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” before moving through Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” and The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man.” Guests filled the benches along the atrium, some quietly singing along, others just listening. The mood lifted when Principal Patrick Deane, seated in the front row, began to sway to the music, drawing many more to join in.
This moment was echoed in a statement to The Journal by Rector Niki Boytchuk-Hale. “The saxophone and trumpet are always a jaw-dropper, and even brought Principal Deane to dance with Chancellor Rogers and myself,” she said. “The planning group chose Last Call to perform at our opening celebration to showcase one of our beloved Queen’s traditions: student bands.”
For Last Call, playing at the JDUC reopening during Homecoming was both a milestone and a way to give back to the community that helped them grow.
“I feel so honoured,” drummer and saxophonist Nicolas Farinaccio, ArtSci ’27, said in an interview with The Journal. “This is the first big event we’ve played for Queen’s, and performing for alumni and so many people here feels really special.”
The band formed through the Queen’s Music Club (QMC), starting by rehearsing in borrowed ARC rooms before building a following in Kingston’s bar scene through events like QMC’s 2024 Battle of the Bands.
“[Seeing the band perform] makes me feel super proud of Queen’s,” Chancellor Shelagh Rogers, ArtSci ’77, said in an interview with The Journal. “It’s wildly creative, and they sound fantastic. I would’ve loved to see something like this when I was here in the ’70s.”
Rogers reflected on her own student years, when the campus music scene was mostly folk and blues, recalling her time working at the now-closed Bitter Grounds Coffeehouse and recording live shows for the campus radio station CFRC.
“I just wish there had been more women involved in music,” she added. “Seeing the women in this band perform with such confidence was so beautiful.”
For many attendees, the day was less about the building’s new architecture and more about the community it will continue to hold, bringing together generations of students; those who once crowded into coffeehouses and those now taking the stage.
“Be curious, keep exploring, and keep pushing the frontiers,” Rogers said to Queen’s musicians and artists, encouraging them to keep using campus spaces to create and build relationships.
As Last Call finished their set, the crowd broke into warm applause and cheers. As the first student band to perform in the new space, Last Call kicked off a new chapter of live music on campus.
Tags
Homecoming, JDUC, Last Call, Live Music, Music, Student bands
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