Every Spring semester, the Congress of the South Forty puts on a concert called WUStock, which takes place on The Swamp. In past years, headliners have included Timeflies, Børns and Daya, with the opener for the headliner being the winner of CS40’s Battle of the Jams. 2020’s winner was the group Third Chance, fronted by junior Aalisha Jaisinghani and featuring sophomore Emma Anisman on guitar, senior Jack Killeen on bass and junior Lee Whitehead on the drums. In the wake of Wash. U.’s campus closure and the implementation of remote online classes, WUStock is one of the many events students won’t be seeing this year, prompting numerous questions in regards to how both CS40 and the performers are handling the news.

While members of CS40 did not answer Student Life’s request for a comment on WUStock’s cancellation, members of Third Chance offered their personal takes on both the band’s direction and the unexpected campus closure.

The band began by explaining how excited they were about their Battle of the Jams win. “It was really incredible to get first place,” said Jaisinghani. “Besides first place, just being able to put together a set of original songs that we were really proud of definitely made me feel exceptionally happy…I wouldn’t have changed a single detail for our 10 minutes of fame.”

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Doug Addicts perform at WUStock 2019 in the Mudd Multipurpose Room. Doug Addicts were one of three winners of 2019’s Battle of the Jams.

Whitehead mentioned that this was his third time performing in Battle of the Bands, adding, “It’s one of the main things I look forward to at Wash. U. Not only is it fun to play, but it’s extremely cool to see what student bands who don’t usually play at events like KWUR parties have to offer.” While the band shared the same excitement for their win, each member was affected differently by the semester on campus being cut short.

Killeen explained that much of his disappointment was rooted in his friends not being able to see him play at WUStock: “When it was announced that Third Chance was the winner…I thought, ‘Gee, my friends have gotta show up to that!’ But sadly that dream has been pulled out from under me, and now I’ll graduate having never seen [my friends’] faces in the crowd. It’s okay though, I’m kinda used to disappointment at this point.”

Anisman admitted that she was devastated, and that “It was hard to hear that our very first gig together would also be our last.”

“I think all of our reaction[s] amounted to extreme disappointment that we wouldn’t get to continue writing music and performing through the rest of spring,” said Whitehead. “Especially after such a great debut performance at Battle of the Bands.”

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Disbanded, one of the winners of Battle of the Jams 2019, opens for Bad Suns at WUStock 2019. This year’s WUStock has been cancelled due to the closure of Danforth Campus.

While the cancellation of WUStock was upsetting for Jaisinghani, this was not the only performance she had been working towards. “I was incredibly disappointed about school being canceled, as not only did I have WUStock to look forward to, but my solo junior recital for classical piano, and also the spring concert for After Dark, the a cappella group I’m music director for and whose performance was going to showcase many of my arrangements. It felt like everything I had worked towards since the beginning of fall suddenly wasn’t going to pay off.”

The band has not been in contact with CS40, saying, “[W]e honestly weren’t expecting any kind of helpful response from them other than possibly an apology.” They are hoping to make up their performance at some point in the future, and they plan on inquiring later in the year about what options may be available to them come the fall semester. Jaisinghani still plans on spending her time at home writing music and practicing her instruments. She mentioned that she and Anisman have been sending voice memos and sound bytes back and forth, and they hope the band can record songs remotely and reconnect in person next semester, as all four of them plan on returning to St. Louis.

As for the lessons gained from this experience, Jaisinghani says she learned that “nothing in life is ever guaranteed.” As a student pursuing a Bachelor of Music, she elaborated, “I spent over a year practicing for my junior recital, knowing it would mean a great deal to the faculty about where I stood as a Bachelor of Music student and my overall reputation with them as a classical and jazz pianist…For a while, I believed that all of these concerts and showcases of mine being canceled was the universe’s way of telling me that hard work never pays off…It took a while for me to shake that attitude, and when I finally did, I realized the lesson I should be taking away here is that sometimes you just have to make the most of the situation.”

Despite the disappointments students are facing in the wake of what is happening both in the Wash. U. community and the world, it is important to appreciate the moments we were lucky enough to experience together. Though he is unable to perform at WUStock this year, Whitehead said, “I was thinking that even if my junior year was over on campus, I’m glad it ended with something as cool as Battle of the Bands where we won first place, got to [hear] a bunch of cool music and were surrounded by our friends. It can’t really get better than that.”

In the same vein, I hope that those of us coming back in the fall semester not only have a newfound excitement for what Wash. U. has to offer, but a renewed appreciation for the things that matter most in life: doing what you love and being surrounded by the people that you love. Third Chance has more to offer and is sure to come back with more music and even more determination than before.