The purple stage lights at The Mug did not just wash the stage; they glistened off the grain of Dimitri Giannopoulos’ acoustic guitar. It was a fitting reflection: The soft purple glow on the guitar’s surface echoed the haze that indie rock band Horse Jumper of Love usually has.
Giannopoulos came out with no fuss, sat down, did a mic check and, somewhere along the way, jumped into his set. The Mug—never known for restraint—was unusually quiet, monitored by the shushing vigilantes in the crowd who I truly appreciated. His voice sat low and soft, as if it were meant to reach only the first few rows and let the rest of the room lean in. It never tried to soar. His guitar followed that restraint: an unhurried, seemingly natural strum that left plenty of air between strokes. Sometimes, he let a note ring long enough to feel like it was testing The Mug’s silence before moving on.
Haley Brown ’27, WVKR’s Promotions Director, had tirelessly arranged the entire production; after contacting Horse Jumper of Love’s management, Brown had miraculously secured a solo show with Giannopoulos for Saturday, Oct. 4. Her vision was executed with support from the rest of the WVKR executive board, as well as lots and lots—and lots—of help from the Student Music Union (StuMu). Truly, the stage would have been bare without them setting it all up. When asked what it all meant to them, Brown said, “The whole thing was super surreal—I’ve been listening to Dimitri since maybe my sophomore year of high school, so it was sort of insane that he was just here and spending time with the station and Anodyne as if it was a completely normal thing to be doing.” They added, “In less media trained terms it was like being around Oprah or the Pope but trying to be really cool about it.”
In the quick pauses between songs, Giannopoulos would sip from his WVKR-provided water bottle and let it drop to the floor with a plastic thud; it was oddly comedic. He apologized for “bringing the mood down,” as Anodyne—a Vassar student band consisting of sophomores Joseph LaRosa, Nikolai Jerrard, Leo Kogan and Elliot Evans—had just performed an electric set. After playing original songs named after Vassar students, LaRosa was sure to thank the crowd and WVKR for having the band in The Mug and moreover, having the band open for Giannopoulos. Anodyne truly had the crowd moving and sweating. Like, really sweating—I smelled it.
“This is a nice audience,” Giannopoulos said at one point, praising the silence. That quiet sharpened every sound. When he hummed and performed the string bend in “Ugly Brunette,” I looked around and saw eyes hanging low, and some even closed. People were leaning against walls or standing atop the couch in the corner with few opting to sit on the floor.
Many times throughout the set, Giannopoulos broke the spell to ask for requests. Students kept shouting “Bagel Breath”—which he had already performed—like a running gag. At the end, someone requested “Hole,” a song he admitted he had not touched since he was 19 years old. Nonetheless, he performed it. Whether it was nerves or memory, his voice seemingly climbed an octave. Placebo effect or not, it felt as if the song had been rewound to its teenage pitch.
Brown, who enjoyed the fruits of her endeavor by staying in the crowd, noted, “The live performance was absolutely beautiful and you could definitely feel that the people who were there for the music were getting so much out of it. Horse Jumper is one of those ride or die bands…I am so grateful to StuMu and WVKR for all of their help, everyone who came and everyone who played!”
Without the usual fog of reverb and the band itself, the songs came across as more deliberate. They did not feel any less or any smaller; they felt nearer, almost as if the distance between his voice and the listener was not just literally, but also musically, erased. What is often obscured on Horse Jumper of Love records came through in Giannopoulos’ performance: the slight catch in his breath, the emphasis on certain words and one cannot forget about the hums.
He kept insisting he would play a few more songs, until he did not and proclaimed that that was all he had. He came up from his seat fast, and the crowd roared as they did after every song, though there were some no’s and groans, as it is not every day we get Horse Jumper of Love at Vassar. He did not linger in the spotlight. He just thanked the crowd again, crouched to collect his things and exchanged a few words with students who drifted up to the stage.
After an onslaught of fans wanting pictures and giving someone change so they could buy his merch, Dimitri had to say this: “I had a great time at The Mug…Everyone was really sweet and respectful, even though I played really quiet, and I really appreciate it…y’all are the best.”