Last Saturday, The Bennington Lens took a trip to DownCaf, a beloved campus spot known for cultivating community spirit through its homegrown music performances, drag shows, and poetry nights. That night, I visited the student center to attend PANTS the Music Festival. This event was organized by student Dalia Bermack and featured both emerging bands like Such Good Friends and well-known bands on campus such as buglikehug. The lineup of the night consisted of the bands Catch & Release, Such Good Friends, Bird Dance Band, buglikehug, and Kitchen.
In preparation for their debut on Bennington campus, I talked to Such Good Friends, a freshman band, about their first performance. The band consists of guitarist Lee Slack, bassist Eli Mor, drummer Isaac Anastas, and vocalist Mars Marsh. When asked to describe the band in Spotify daylist terms, they jokingly responded: “Extra chill out, angry morning vibes.” The group formed a few weeks into their time at Bennington, each member bringing their own musical background to the table. Artists that inspire them include Car Seat Headrest, My Bloody Valentine, and Ella Fitzgerad. For now, the band just plays covers, but is working towards creating original music and cultivating their unique sound. They discussed the active music scene at Bennington College, Anastas saying: “It’s encouraging to want to be part of that. Going to shows makes you want to do it more and to improve.” Their roughly 30 minute set was made up of the songs “Rid of Me” by PJ Harvey, “Your Graduation” by Modern Baseball, “Bodies” by Car Seat Headrest, and “Oh Baby” by LCD Soundsystem. Bird Dance Band, an off-campus bluegrass folk group, performed shortly after. Their music was collaborative and engaging with the audience, as they emulated an airy and acoustic DIY sound of their own.
Before the show, I met with Bug Nachmanoff, lead vocalist of the buglikehug band, to discuss their approach to writing and performing music, as well as their experience as a young musician at Bennington. An independent artist, Bug writes and performs all of their own material, and uses “buglikeband” as an umbrella term for the rotating group of musicians who have performed with them. For PANTS Music Festival, the buglikehug band consisted of bassist Marcel Davies, drummer Grace Schlett, and lead guitarist Shea Hagan. The set list included “Who Else,” and “August” by buglikehug, “Pressure to Party” by Julia Jacklin, and two unreleased buglikehug songs, “Worth It” and “You Got Mean.”
Nachmanoff has been writing and performing music for nearly a decade. A Los Angeles native, they found community among peers, family, and friends, quickly becoming part of the local music scene. Their musical abilities were especially shaped by their years in a high-school jazz ensemble. “The skills you gain from being in the jazz world lend themselves well to being a good band member—and they’re incredibly helpful for improvising.” They note that their music was born in Los Angeles and is now being nursed in Vermont as they study music and visual arts. “I’m hoping that Bennington builds on the project I’ve already started,” they said. “The skills I’m learning from my teachers here support it and help me make it better.” Nachmanoff isn’t quite sure how to categorize their music, explaining that it blends elements of folk, pop, and rock, along with singer-songwriter. “I’d say my music leans more toward folk,” they added, “especially in the way that I sing.”
After arriving at Bennington in 2024, they quickly grew within the music scene and became friends with musicians that perform in the buglikehug band. Since then, Nachmanoff has played shows on campus and continues writing and releasing songs. Expanding on their experience, Nachmanoff discussed the difficulty of collaborating on a small college campus.“Especially if you have an established music community outside of Bennington, it’s a big adjustment, [for] you to be in an environment with a smaller selection of people, and all those people are already in bands together.” Even though they are well-established for their age, they share that it hasn’t always been easy. They shared their experience of burnout and discussed overcoming performance anxiety, saying: “I realized that when you’re having fun on stage, that’s when the people in the audience are having fun…So the vision is silliness with a side of absurdity.”
Toward the end of “Worth It” and their final song,“You Got Mean,” the band stood up and pulled their pants down, revealing novelty underwear, alluding to the name of the festival, and to Kilpat’s annual “Dressed to get Laid” party.
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