When Gwen Wolfenbarger ’19 took the stage, the chapel went silent. Wolfenbarger’s short blond hair was silhouetted by red lights and mist from a fog machine, with the huge vaulted ceiling of Shove Chapel rising above her. Instead of guitars and drum sets and microphone stands littering the stage, there were only a few white-draped tables, a computer, a synthesizer, and a guitar. Gentle electronics playing softly over the speakers cut off, and as the audience noticed and looked towards the stage, a sustained guitar chord rose over the audience. The lights began to flash and change colors. More fog roiled up from the floor. And then Wolfenbarger tapped a few keys on her computer, leaned into the microphone, and began to sing, modulating her pitch and volume wordlessly until her voice, the guitar, and the lights all blended together into one pulsing mass of sound and light. It was probably the spookiest thing I have ever encountered.
There was no introduction, no audience interaction, and no pause between songs. Guitar chords and synthetic noise and vocals, amplified through electronic looping, mesmerized the audience just as much as it frightened the. Heavy breathing into the microphone turned to gasping turns and booming bass chords. This was not music you can sing along or dance to; it was uncomfortable and strange, visceral even.
Wolfenbarger is a Colorado College music major, currently taking a break from school to tour with her solo band Seal Eggs, now a small band with high school bandmates and friends Zach Koplan and Hayden Kesterson on guitar and synthesizer. Denver-based artist Madeline Johnston, currently playing under the name Midwife, opened the show with her solo guitar act. This concert, sponsored by the on-campus musical organization B-Side Collective, and organized in collaboration with the radio broadcasting club the Sounds of CC, was one of the last on a tour that has spanned from New York to Minneapolis to Albuquerque.
“The tour sounds like it’s been a wild ride, but I think it’s been overall successful and fun,” said Lena Farr-Morrissey ’19, former bandmate, friend, and current leader of B-Side Collective.
In interviews with the SoCC and local newspapers, Wolfenbarger explained how her identity as a transgender woman has been a big part of shaping her music. Her music is often a reflection and communication of her emotions, which range from “mild melancholy to abject horror,” she said in an interview with the Colorado Springs Independent.
“Most of my music deals with lots of internal processes, like depression and gender dysphoria,” said Wolfenbarger.
The concert only lasted about two hours, with Seal Eggs playing for less than an hour of that time. It felt like much longer, though. It was an emotionally demanding performance that left the audience somewhat shocked and awed. They gave Wolfenbarger a standing ovation when she finished.
“People seemed awe-struck after the performance,” Farr-Morrissey said. “[They] needed time to process what had just happened.”