The Head Trips and Bracelet Box enhanced Kent’s local music scene during Stage Zero at the DI Hub Reactor Thursday March 20, showing the success that can come from student ingenuity.
Both bands were hired by music distributor Capybara Collective, and drinks were provided by Boobys Mobile Beverages. The concert was hosted by LaunchNET, Kent State’s entrepreneurial organization designed to advise and guide students through the process of starting or expanding their company.
“I want the student entrepreneurs and artists that we’re working with to be able to gain some notoriety and a following here on campus from the community members that show up,” Alizeh Khalifa, LaunchNET’s assistant marketing director, said. “I just want to create that kind of community and that positive atmosphere for people, that they know they can come here and they can trust us.”
Stage Zero participants, such as school counseling graduate student Lance Batton, have turned to LaunchNET for business exposure, whether it’s securing gigs or securing start-up funding. Batton is the bassist and vocalist for The Head Trips.
“We’re a three-piece, my buddy Chris started it with me…and then Emory is our new guitarist,” Batton said. “This one band that we played with from West Virginia described us as ‘Youngstown punkadelic’ and I love just that term ‘punkadelic,’ but I think it’s cause our sound’s very grungy and punk with some psych and old garage rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s, and from Youngstown so there’s some midwestern elements, too.”
Batton stated that Kent’s music scene has “ebbed and flowed” over the years in terms of the popularity and amount of local bands like his own.
“I think there’s been some periods of time while I’ve been here where there’s been shows happening more frequently…and there’s been some times where I feel like it’s been a little bit more dormant,” he said. “Around here people have been getting back out and they’re doing music and this event’s a great example…they were welcoming of live music and it’s stuff like that that people make it work and stick together.”
Social media is another significant influencer of the local music scene, and keeping up with the competitive nature of apps like TikTok can threaten the joy of making music, Drew McDowell, Kent State graduate and guitarist and vocalist for Bracelet Box, said.
“I think the very obvious thing is me being able to find [other artists], and it’s very easy, especially with TikTok to create a platform for yourself that can be more than just being an ad,” McDowell said. “I’ll say the downside is, again, there are a lot of people and it is pretty oversaturated, but I do think it gets easy to compare yourself on social media.”
McDowell continued by talking about how to rise above a “comparison rut.”
“The thing that blocks it out for me is just making something again, and you kind of find the reason why you’re making it in the first place,” he said. “So I shouldn’t be trying to chase this validation from others.”
Both these bands were recruited for Stage Zero by the Capybara Collective, founded by Kent graduate Jude Mercer.
“I started Capybara Collective in December of 2023, more officially, but it really started back in 2020,” Mercer said. “My friend in high school, we were a music duo, but…as I came to Kent State and I started to meet more creatives, I decided I wanted to make a platform where I could put on people who didn’t get the opportunities that every other person gets.”
LaunchNET provides resources to all types of artists and entrepreneurs, and Mercer worked with them in the past to receive assistance and even start-up grants for his company.
Stage Zero’s beverage provider, Boobys Mobile Beverages, founded by senior entrepreneurship major Nicholas Huger, also received funding and advising from LaunchNET.
“Boobys is based after the blue-footed booby bird,” Huger said. “We really wanted to choose a name that separated ourselves in the crowded market of beverages…we serve coffee, mocktails, tea, lemonade, energy drinks.”
LaunchNET encourages students with any artistic passion to come in and meet with their advisors because having a business background can take creative projects to the next level.
“There’s artists, designers, musicians and I really saw a big community of that here at Kent State specifically and we wanna make sure all the events, programs, whatever we’re putting out there is tailored to the audience and the type of entrepreneurs we’re seeing,” Khalifa said.
Olivia Weber is a reporter. You can contact her at [email protected].