“A band is a great way to destroy a friendship.”
-Julian Casablancas
There are many bands that prove this claim (Oasis, The Pixies, My Chemical Romance, One Direction?). Hillsdale College’s student bands, however, might echo their predicament. The college is ripe with bands and students who love playing music — particularly music with their friends. This column will showcase these people and their music.
Our first band is “Visiting Hours,” an acoustic folk duo composed of Dominic Bulger and Jacob Gieselman.
The pair remind me of George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon if they had listened to Bob Dylan instead of Alan Alba…and were also seniors in college.
“Well I guess it goes back to 1997,” Gieselman slyly remarks. They turn and look at each other, laughing as they think back on their band’s history. Bulger finishes the sentence, “The year we were both conceived.”
The two live in an off-campus residence called Bjornheim and met through the now-defunct band “Penny and the Mandimes” (according to sources, the members of this group are still “friends”), in which Bulger played keyboard and Gieselman, the bass guitar. The only two juniors in the group of seniors, they realized that they would be left all on their lonesome after the “Mandimes” graduated. So they decided to start playing together.
The band’s name stems from the Hillsdale phenomenon of the same title. “We live off-campus, so we are not beholden to visiting hours. There are always visiting hours, because there are no visiting hours.” This idea is a staple of their residence. A former housemate was insistent on this point— insistent to a strange extent, the guys note. “It was weird.”
Regarding the actual college policy surrounding visiting hours, the two thought for a moment before Gieselman simply replied, “They signed an Honor Code, they are held to self-government.” A vague response, churning with typical Hillsdale jargon. Ultimately, they see the good in the policy it seems, but are too focused on music, food, and friends to care much for the dormitories and their respective policies. “We like to let our readers interpret what they will of our name. And we’re not into politics,” said Bulger.
The duo attempt to include their friends as much as possible in their shows. One of their favorite gigs was at Rough Draft, where Henry Brink ’20 and senior Zsanna Bodor both played with them. Last semester they played a show in front of the townhomes to the quarantined, and probably slightly depressed, students. With them was senior John Szczotka on the cajon, Zane Mabry ‘20, (his excellency, director of student activities) on the electric guitar, and “Bobby from Niedfeldt” on the banjo. Spontaneity is fundamental to the band’s essence, the duo insist. Szczotka found out he was going to be singing only a few hours before the show.
“The townhomes set was the set most in the spirit of the band,” Gieselman said. “While we were in the middle of a song, Bobby from Niedfelt, who plays banjo shows up, and we just turned to him and said, ‘Hey do you wanna play?’”
They began playing gigs their junior year, at coffee shops and outside the townhomes, but also at Concert on the Quad and at Gieselman’s grandparents’ church — Bethel Gilead Community Church in East Gilead Lake — where the locals supposedly “go bananas” for them.
Although they originally thought to wait until after the “Mandimes” graduated, Bulger described the premature creation of “Visiting Hours” by saying, “It was like we were given our father’s inheritance early and started playing music.”
Bulger usually plays the guitar and sings, and Gieselman plays the bass and acts as backup singer/Bob Dylan impersonator. They alternate and dabble in other instruments including, but not limited to, the mandolin, banjo, dueling guitars, and piano. They bought a violin, but they cannot play it yet.
“We can make noises with it,” begins Bulger, “but we are not violinists. There would only be a problem if people thought of us as violinists because they would be… (in unison) wrong.”
The duo play a lot of “Mumford and Sons,” Bob Dylan, and generally acoustic “things.” They also introduced an original song at Concert on the Quad entitled “Grewcock Student Union,” which is “very similar to the Eagles hit, ‘Hotel California,’” Bulger said.
What inspired this original piece? “The Grewcock Student Union,” they state authoritatively. “I think the better question is who inspired the Eagles,” Bulger said.
The telos of the band lies simply in the intersection of music, friends, and fun. “We make music because we like music. We also like to goof around a lot. Which includes both songs that are in themselves jokes (like “Dostoevsky” by Scott Helman) and performing in a silly, comedic manner to entertain,” said Gieselman.
Bulger continued,“We are best when we are least expected. No one expects ‘Visiting Hours.’”
Fast Facts
Their favorite coffee shop: Pub and Grub. “It serves beer. Good beer, said Gieselman. The others are more or less irrelevant.”
Their dream gig: A Thursday night setting sun on Red Rocks Amphitheater, Bob Dylan opening, Chris Thile on mandolin, Marcus Mumford on guitar, and Drew Godsell on drums.
Possible Cover Band name: Bisiting Bours (they love spoonerisms)
For additional reading:
Jacob Gieselman’s classic Mexican nacho recipe:
Ingredients:
Chicken Fajita from SAGA (already has fajita mix on it)
Generic brand chips (cheap, chips makes little difference in Nachos)
Onions
Tomatoes (diced)
Peppers
Frank’s Red Hot
Shredded Mexican Cheese
Drew Godsell
Start with a light coat of shredded Mexican cheese on the chips. Follow it up with the ingredients (the chicken, onions, peppers, a very light dose of Frank’s Red Hot, and a second, light layer of shredded cheese in order to secure all of the ingredients onto the cheese. One layer of nachos is best, because with two the bottom layer does not receive the cheese. Bake until outside of the cheese is a light brown. Eat them with Drew Godsell.