These Students Turned Their Attic into a Live Music Venue

This story originally appears in the December 2017 issue of Jerk Magazine. It was written by Taylor Connors and photography is by Liam Sheehan

Down Euclid Avenue is a double-apartment residence occupied by eight friends. The house looks like a typical man cave: video games, food, and clothes littering the floor. Upstairs, however, is a vast attic enabling the boys to fulfill a dream they’d had since freshman year: a live music venue. And that’s exactly what they created. Every once in awhile, the off-campus home is changes into an electric venue which they refer to as “The End.” The artistic minds occupying the space are matched only by its transformative decor. Christmas lights cover the ceiling, the floor is decorated with a rotating cast of decorations, and it’s all topped off with a giant plastic clown head. 

While none of these boys study music, they definitely have a clear vision of what “The End” should be. The house is a creative bunch—there are six film students, a design student, and a photo student. This combination affects what the live performances look like. “We go after creating a venue as an atmosphere—not just what it looks like but what it feels like,” says Scott Sweitzer.  

Not only do their studies influence the setting of the physical space, but they also inspire the roommates to film the shows and upload the videos on YouTube in what they call “Psycho Sessions.” There is only one video online so far, but the top notch editing and distinctive artistic vision helped it to gain 75K views in a week. That and the fact that on-the-rise YouTube sensation and Syracuse student, Clairo, was featured in the video. While Clairo and other indie artists are popular at SU, the boys do not want to limit the type of music performed by any means.  

One of the main goals the team wants to achieve is to create a place that brings everyone together, in contrast to the exclusive scene that is often present on campus. “We thought it would be cool if you could come in and see a rapper as the opening set, and then someone like Clairo, and then you know maybe a funk band,” Sweitzer says. 

An eclectic variety of sound is not only an important factor for The End, it’s an aspect they believe is missing from campus. Sweitzer explains: “We don’t want to name any names, but some venues play one type of music and that attracts a specific crowd—not everyone.” And that’s probably the most defining factor of The End: inclusivity. The boys have very different but meshing personalities, and they wanted to bring that to the venue. As Sweitzer says: “A big thing for us is acceptance of every kind of person. You look around and there’s a diverse crowd. That’s what The End is all about.”