ARTS & POP CULTURE

tuftsdaily.com TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2021

Melt delivers electric performance at Brighton Music Hall, Melt spoke about touring

by Maeve Hagerty

Arts Editor

On Dec. 10, senior Veronica Stewart-Frommer returned to a city and people she calls her home. As the lead singer for Melt and a current Tufts student, Stewart-Frommer and her six bandmates performed past Friday at Brighton Music Hall, a venue packed to see the group on their last leg of their first headlining tour ever.

On Dec. 7, the Daily conducted an interview with band members Marlo Shankweiler, Eric Gabriel and StewartFrommer.

Following the release of their successful debut EP “West Side Highway” (2021), the band members discussed their experience touring so far. Shankweiler, who graduated from New York University in 2021, said her experience touring post college has been much better than when she was in school.

“There’s nothing just harder than going back to class on that Monday or finishing your assignments when you’re on the road. It feels like the most arbitrary thing,” Shankweiler said. “We’ll play a sold-out show, and then afterward Eric will be in the green room on his laptop doing homework.”

Gabriel, a senior finishing his last semester at Georgetown, described his busy week of juggling classes and touring.

“This past week was my last week of class ever. Marlo drove down from New York, picked me up in D.C. on Wednesday, I missed the rest of that week of class, … and then drove the rest of the way to Nashville and played a weekend of shows and got back Sunday, back for finals,” Gabriel said.

The quick turnaround from place to place wasn’t the only challenge described by the band members. Stewart-Frommer explained how physical performing can be for her as a singer and the challenge posed by illness on the road.

“I think after COVID our immune systems are so shot — this has been our sickest tour of all time,” Stewart-Frommer said. “We’ve all had sinus infections. I was singing through bronchitis for two months.”

Stewart-Frommer described touring as “a game of endurance” to get her homework done, play the shows and get enough sleep, but she said touring has been a positive experience, especially meeting their fans.

“It’s been incredible,” StewartFrommer said. “For the most part, our fans are our age. And they’re so fun. We love hanging out with them.”

Throughout the entire conversation, there was a sense that Melt’s dedication and care for their fans is truly one of their distinguishing qualities.

Shankweiler reminisced during the interview about their most recent weekend of shows.

“People are really there to hear the songs, because we’re so far from home and they’re singing every word to our debut EP which we’ve never performed live before,” Shankweiler said. “People have been listening to this music potentially for four years, waiting for us to come, and we’ve never been here.”

Stewart-Frommer continued to describe how validating the tour had been given the departure in tone and style of their debut EP from their previous singles.

“I think it’s given us a lot of affirmation,” Stewart-Frommer said. “These people come up to us after shows who’ve been listening since the very beginning or heard of us two months ago, and it feels good to know that

see MELT, page 6

SHANNI ZHOU / THE TUFTS DAILY Melt members Veronica Stewart-Frommer and Eric Gabriel perform at Brighton Music Hall.

Dressember combats human trafficking through fashion, individual advocacy and fundraising

by Colette Smith

Assistant Arts Editor

Content warning: This article discusses human trafficking.

The Dressember Foundation advocates for everyone to wear a dress or tie for the 30 days of December to fight for an end to human trafficking. Even though this might sound strange, the organization says it has raised over $13 million toward the cause since 2013. Clearly, they are onto something.

Dressember started in 2009 when founder Blythe Hill started to learn more about the horrors of human trafficking but felt helpless to stop it. From the time Hill started hearing about human trafficking, it took her a few years to determine her place in the fight against it. Eventually, she decided to wear a dress every day of December. This one-person stand then turned into an international protest that had 1,233 participants in 2013 and has blossomed into over 32,000 participants since then. Though not necessarily intuitive, Dressember explains their choice of dress as their signature: “The dress is our uniform, the flag of our movement. Dressember is an opportunity to reclaim and reappropriate the dress as a symbol of freedom and power; a flag for the inherent dignity of all people.” To accommodate more people, participants in Dressember can choose to wear the signature dress or a tie. Participants have the freedom to make the Style Challenge their own by using things that they already have in their closet.

While the visibility of the Style Challenge on social media is certainly an important aspect of Dressember for raising awareness of human trafficking, Dressember also uses the challenge to raise money for the cause. It does so in a variety of ways. People who want to help can become an advocate to raise money from others, make a donation directly to Dressember or one of their advocates, dedicate an event like a birthday or wedding so that guests give to the cause or set up a monthly giving plan. While it may be too late to join the fight as an advocate for all of the 31 days of December this year, it is certainly still possible to consider donating.

The funds that Dressember raises are distributed across Dressember’s network of anti-trafficking organizations that have applied and been vetted by Dressember’s Grant Advisory Committee. Dressember recognizes the complicated and intricate nature of the issue of human trafficking, so they work to fight it according to four pillars: advocacy, prevention, intervention and survivor empowerment. The first pillar, advocacy, recognizes that to achieve change, it is necessary to mobilize people by making them aware of the issue. Some tangible ways Dressember moves towards this goal is by, “sharing reliable information, mobilizing the public, using survivor-informed language and verbiage, [providing education] on conscious consumerism, [and] offering tangible action steps.”

Next, Dressember approaches the prevention pillar by finding what makes groups more at risk to trafficking and then attempting to change systems to reduce their vulnerability, including supporting foster youth and LGBTQ+ youth, addressing poverty and racism, and discussing exploitative supply chains. As a part of this plank, Dressember has partnered with organizations including The Freedom Story, Pathfinders and youthSpark.

The following pillar, the intervention pillar, works with local network leaders and tries to, “remove child victims of trafficking from exploitative situations, as well as providing support and exit pathways for trafficked adults.” Dressember goes about this through training front-line workers to be more capable of identifying trafficking red flags, implementing trauma support for trafficking victims and aiding victims of OSEC, or Online Exploitation of Children. Partner organizations that support this cause include Truckers Against Trafficking, the Human Trafficking Report and Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking. The final pillar, survivor empowerment, is all about “sustained liberation” for trafficking survivors through offerings like housing, group therapy, job training, educational programs and legal support. Partner organizations that support survivor empowerment include 10 Thousand Windows, the Starfish Project, Love146 and Freedom Network USA.

The beauty of Dressember is not that it will necessarily end the $150 billion human trafficking industry. Instead, it is a collaboration of people coming together in the simple challenge to take a stand against this dire issue in a way that is possible for them. The success of Dressember is in the fact that it is easy for people to get involved and help, which is why it has been able to raise $13 million and recruit over 30,000 people to fundraise since 2013 — all to help put an end to human trafficking.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

Finales, farewells and the future — it’s not goodbye, it’s see you later

Winter is not just coming, winter is here. Well, in its own fluctuating New England under global warming and pre-solstice sort of way. The roads are salted, the wind tunnels are biting and my corduroy Uniqlo jacket is decreasing in utility, no matter how many long sleeves I layer underneath.

In other words, the semester is ending and so too is our time together.

Writing this column has grown into a weekly reflective experience for me, a chance to revisit my TV track history with a new attentiveness and desire to extrapolate the most meaningful, if niche, themes. Reviewing these shows has also brought me back to fond memories, like prolonged 3 a.m. discussions analyzing Tyrion’s character arc on “Game of Thrones” (2011–2019) and rather heated debates over whether “Friends” (1994–2004) is funny or not. Sharing television shows is honestly a good chunk of my love language — even if the recipients would rather tune me out (everlasting love to my friends, without whom this column would not exist).

This past week has felt like a season finale, for me especially. I’ve been main-character walking through campus, with Adele on repeat, trying to soak in my last glimpses of Tufts before I head abroad in the spring. I’m feeling the full force of pre-departure nostalgia, and it’s not helping that what feels like every dance group on campus has performed this weekend, making me literally tear up in Cohen Auditorium.

Like the end of all good things, a series finale is always a sentimental experience. We are often left either comforted by a conclusion ambiguous enough to imply our protagonist will be just fine, or left stewing in an unsatisfied wrap-up of plot points. In my favorite show, which is “Halt and Catch Fire” (2014–2017) as I’ve repeated many times, the finale offers a beautiful nod toward the infinite possibilities that the future holds.

So, I’d like to leave you with a similar excitement for the unknown: the newest additions to my Want-To-Watch list (plus a first impression synopsis based on the trailers).

From Kyle: “Ted Lasso” (2020–): A comedy with heartwarming sports-drama vibes starring a very “American” Jason Sudeikis — boasting a mustache and a thick Southern accent — as a newly arrived “football” coach in England.

From Nyssa: “Only Murders in the Building” (2021–): Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short play an eccentric trio of apartment residents who unravel a murder mystery, in this comedy series reminiscent of “Knives Out” (2019).

From Anna: “The Maid” (2021–): A moving yet devastating story of resilience about a young single mother, portrayed by the alluring Margaret Qualley, struggling to make ends meet.

And with that, I will extend to you, dear reader, the same comforting cliché I promised my senior friends: this is not a goodbye, this is a see you later.

MELT

continued from page 5 those people are down for what we’re doing even if it kind of spans genres.”

Gabriel adds that while the tour has been a learning experience, he appreciates exploring new cities and meeting new people.

“The whole tour has been such a whirlwind,” Gabriel concluded. “I think we’ve all just been feeling so, so grateful that we can go to these places, go to new cities that none of us have ever been or had any connection to, and play new music together … We all just feel a lot of gratitude. It’s really special.”

Melt described one of the moments on tour which shocked them the most: a show which they opened in Hamilton, Ohio for a Bruno Mars tribute band called Uptown Funk. They hadn’t expected much going into it, but Stewart-Frommer said it was their biggest show on the tour.

She retold how she “was in the crowd chatting with some woman and she was like, the entire town comes out and just treats it like Bruno Mars is here. We had a full, beautiful vista of, like, 3,000 people on this lawn.”

Shankweiler laughed, saying, “it was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

That sense of wonder and pure excitement came across during their performance at Brighton Music Hall on Friday. During the concert, the genuine amazement and joy on the band members’ faces was striking.

As Melt played one of their softer songs, “West Side Highway” (2021), the crowd was enthralled. They sang along in an air of heartfelt nostalgia while Melt transitioned into “Inside” (2017), which immediately shifted the energy and reconciled the audience with a very evident truth: Melt is an amazing band to watch live.

Watching Melt perform truly reminds you why live music is so special. From Shankweiler’s impressive guitar solos on “Inside” and “Hours” (2021), this author’s personal favorite, to the perfect opposition of Gabriel’s and Stewart-Frommer’s voices harmonizing together, the concert exemplified the power and energy the band possesses.

Totally devoid of ego, awash in charisma, Melt is all about the music, and they do it well. Like, really well. The horns were incredible: rhythmically airtight and charismatic in their solos. Gabriel’s fluid keyboard synths melded with masterful bass lines and a driving drum kit to create something truly unique.

The pull of tracks like “Don’t Want Me” (2021) was gravitational as StewartFrommer, space buns and all, delivered out-of-this world vocals. Her personality kept the audience engaged, but it was her powerful and profound voice which enchanted them.

Melt was confident but real. There was a focus on the music and connecting to the audience through the music, which paid off. Their show at Brighton Music Hall was likely one of the best this author has seen, and it makes their fans hopeful for new music and new concert dates after this tour comes to an end.

Stewart-Frommer admitted that about a quarter of their set list for this tour was unreleased music, so there’s definitely an idea that there could be something new dropping soon.

“We’re going to record an album — inevitably,” Shankweiler said.

Until then, fans will just have to wait, but one thing is at least clear: the fans will come. Melt is electric and memorable in a way that few other artists of their stature can claim to be, and their performance at Brighton Music Hall reflected that genuine talent.