The students of California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) rocked into the new semester with PVRIS at the AS Welcome Virtual Concert last Sunday. Lead singer of the band, Lyndsey Gunnulfsen, performed acoustic versions of the rock group’s songs via Zoom and had a Q&A session afterward, giving students an intimate show they could enjoy from their own home.
Once Gunnulfsen appeared on screen, students immediately filled the Zoom chat box with cheers as she played “Gimme a Minute” from PVRIS new album, “Use Me,” and the ballad filled each listener’s computer speaker with a beautiful and raw melody. She connected with the audience throughout the entire concert, saying she wished she, “could be there with [the crowd]” in person. After playing the song “Good To Be Alive,” Gunnulfsen said it represented, “all our lives right now,” amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many CSUMB students are avid listeners of PVRIS, they asked Gunnulfsen not only questions about her music, but also about her personal experiences during the Q&A session. Mark O’Dowell asked, “what [Gunnulfsens] favorite indulgence,” was. The artist said O’Dowell’s question was, “a really fun one,” but she was afraid of, “sounding grandma-ish, [because she] really loves cooking for her friends and being a little homebody.” In terms of her career as an artist, multiple students asked how Gunnulfsen decides what concepts to use when making the bands music videos. In response she thanked students, saying she, “didn’t know [many CSUMB students] watched them,” and that her video ideas are inspired from, “being in nature, watching movies, walking around different cities at night, going into museums and getting out into the world,” basing them off of the activities of daily life.
Associated Students (AS) Programming and Communications Coordinator and Emcee of the concert, Juan Guzman, was thrilled to present CSUMB students with a fun event that could help take their mind off of the pandemic. “When thinking about our first event for the semester, we thought that a welcome concert would be a great way to kick off the school year. Even though we knew it would be a bit of a challenge to hold a virtual concert, we knew that students would enjoy this new experience and hopefully [students] realized that their student government is here to make sure they have some fun during these uncertain times,” said Guzman. He also said, “planning the concert was not an easy task given that it was our first time doing a virtual concert,” but nevertheless is, “very glad we did the concert,” because, “we discovered that [PVRIS] had a great following with our student body and a lot and the students seemed to have a great time.”