A ‘nice vibe’ – Nashville native sings at ‘Live After Dark’

Live After Dark at the FAU Boca Raton campus featured musical guest Carly Bannister, who sang her sweet, astonishing love songs to FAU students. The cold breeze hit the faces of smiling students as they enjoyed the free food and the live performance.

The+Entrance+to+the+Student+Union+at+FAUs+Boca+Raton+campus.+Photo+by+Eston+Parker+III.

Eston Parker III

The Entrance to the Student Union at FAU’s Boca Raton campus. Photo by Eston Parker III.

Samantha Sheradsky, Contributing Writer

On Tuesday, Owl Radio hosted an outdoor concert in the patio of Live Oak Pavilion behind the Student Union. It went from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. as acoustic singer and songwriter Carly Bannister played her music that kept the audience warm and pleased. Bannister, a Nashville native, has several singles, along with a recent release of her album “Same Team.” They are currently streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and Youtube. 

Bannister’s stage setup included little lanterns that had luminous, sparkly lights inside. The audience sat at decorated tables dressed in layers of sweaters, jeans, and tennis shoes. Students ate free food such as chicken nuggets as they awaited Bannister to take the stage. 

Cyrus Vulentes, a freshman majoring in Communication Studies, first heard about the event as he walked by it from the university’s fitness center.

“It was really nice that they do this for students. That they supply food and drinks. It has a very nice vibe,” Vulentes said. He describes the artist as being very relaxing with a hint of a romantic vibe that “makes you feel sappy”. Vulentes described Bannister as being a good singer and likely to come again to hear FAU music artists. 

Bannister strummed alongside guitarist Jared Lane’s light-blue electric guitar. Lane wore a black hoodie that read “Live After Dark” and blue jeans with white tennis shoes. They played her hit songs, “Overthinking” and “Careless”, as well as some covers such as “Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez and “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles. 

Her set consisted of love songs with a hint of bliss and purity. Her song “Overthinking” talked about having a crush and how that love had her overthinking about being in a relationship with him. “Careless” is about her experience of moving on from a person who treated her awfully and the panic she felt because of that relationship. 

Senior computer science major Nicholas Cerna also attended the event. “A friend of mine told me about it and I was like ‘free food, company with friends, and free music?’ Basically in,” said Cerna. 

Cerna described the music as blissful and said their favorite part was when Bannister spoke about TikTok during her set. Bannister promotes some of her songs on there, along with some short, funny sketches. Her TikTok account is @carlybannistermusic which has 126.4 thousand likes and over 1,000 followers.

Isabelle Enriquez, a freshman majoring in urban design, found out about the event because a friend of hers and her suitemates told her about it.  “I was told that the event was a fashion show, actually,” said Enriquez.

Isabelle described the artist as “really chill and calming” and feels that the Program Board staff put on a well-organized event.

“The food is really good and for everybody. The music is really nice and very entertaining. The venue looks beautiful,” Enriquez said.

Samantha Sheradsky is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email @[email protected] or DM her on Twitter @samtheham132