After months of build-up and work behind the scenes, Suffolk’s radio club WSFR put on its spring concert at Suffolk’s Modern Theatre, featuring four local bands: Weepin’ & A Wailin’, Grand View Point, German Exit and Diaspora.

The plan for the concert originally started when WSFR President and General Manager Oliva Haydar spent time looking through the club’s drive after assuming her role, finding documents from former e-board members.

“I wanted to know absolutely everything about what I would need to know, whether it’s technology event-based,” said Haydar. “I came across [instructions] to contact the modern theatre.” 

After previously holding the spring concert in the Keches Room of Sargent Hall, it was important to Haydar that the 2026 spring concert felt like a true concert.

“I wanted to go more vintage or analog in a way, [similar to] kind of how everything’s been going this past semester. I feel a lot of vintage practices have been coming back, which I really enjoy,” said Haydar.

While Haydar had a vision for the theater, she wasn’t the only one. Suffolk’s Modern Theatre is infamously hard to book, meaning Haydar had to get in touch with Modern Theatre staff a year in advance of when the concert was intended to happen. 

“Even when I reached out in June, they only had maybe three dates available, and I snatched up April 18. I didn’t want a Wednesday, or something like that, for a late concert. People have classes, people are gonna be tired. I kind of always think of live shows as something to get away to on the weekend, so April 18, a Saturday, is perfect,” said Haydar, explaining her process.

After securing the venue, the next step was securing bands. Eric Robinson, WSFR’s events coordinator, took the lead on handling the bands.

“We asked all of our members what kind of music they like, what kind of local bands they listened to. We generated a list, and we contacted them if we could find their email,” said Robinson

That list was slowly whittled down through different factors.

“Of the bands that we emailed, we looked at the ones that got back to us, listened to their music a bit more, made some executive decisions, and then decided the lineup that way,” said Robinson.

Part of those executive decisions involved the club’s budget, as Haydar explains.

“When it came to actually getting down to planning it. It was about being able to compensate those bands,” said Haydar. “We [also] didn’t really have enough time to get that many artists, considering the really abrupt move of the radio station, which pretty much happened right when the fall semester started.”

Early in the fall semester, WSFR was abruptly told to move its studio from its home in the current SUPD office to its new location in the Sawyer building, next to Suffolk’s thrift store. While the move was considered an upgrade by the club, it was a surprise, and halted most club activities at the beginning of the semester.

All of the bands that were eventually confirmed to perform were in contact with Robinson, though it wasn’t a straight path.

“Sometimes the communication would just cease for a month or longer, so we would be in the dark about a lot of decisions. So, for a while, there were a lot of speculative assumptions that led to the formation of this concert,” said Robinson. 

Trevor Richards, the drummer for Weepin’ and A Wailin’, a Berklee-based roots rock reggae band, explained how Robinson reached out.

“He followed us on social media and asked if we wanted to be a part of it, and this sounded like such a cool event, so we said yes,” said Robinson.

All of the bands were prepared for the concert as well. Masen Palmerino, bassist and vocalist for German Exit, an alt-rock trio, explained how his band prepped.

“I think the biggest thing is that the stakes are higher, so we have an extra rehearsal. But you know, we’ve been doing this for a while, so we just rely on our instincts,” said Palmerino.

Ryan Cobbett, guitarist and vocalist for Grand View Point, an indie-rock band, shared how they decide their set list when performing on a campus in comparison to a regular gig.

“We try to do a few more crowd pleasers than usual to try to branch out to as many people as possible, but also, we write our own music, so we try to get a good blend,” said Cobbett.

Kaylani Riley, vocalist for Diaspora, a Lowell-based metal band, explained how Diaspora planned on sharing unreleased music with fans at the show.

“We have our same original songs as we continue to create more songs, we add those there to show and showcase to the people, and then we have a couple of covers here and there,” said Riley.

On the day of the concert, WSFR staff started early, getting to the studio at 1:30 p.m. to transport equipment to the theater. Helen Flaherty, podcast coordinator for WSFR, explained what happened next.

“We set it all up, like mapped out where we wanted the instruments on the stage to go,” said Flaherty.

WSFR e-board deliberately started early to ensure nothing was being rushed.

“It’s been a great start for a good night because you really took our time and made sure that we had enough time to get everything done that we could have, a relaxed start, instead of rushing into it,” said Flaherty.

Once bands started arriving at around 5 p.m., sound-check began, with each band getting 10 minutes on stage. The Modern Theatre staff was running a tight schedule to ensure everything was prepped in time for doors to open at 7 p.m.

Right at 7:30 p.m., Robinson appeared on stage, serving as Master of Ceremonies for the evening, and introduced Weepin’ & A Wailin’ as the opening act. After a successful first set of upbeat Reggae music, Robinson reappeared to introduce the next act, entertaining the audience with jokes as Grand New Point set up. Opening with a cover of “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, Grand View Point’s set included freshly recorded originals and releases. After a few more jokes from Robinson, German Exit performed their set with originals as well as covers, including “Head in the Ceiling Fan” by Title Fight, complete with intricate guitar work, strong basslines and strong drums.

The final act of the night was Diaspora, performing three unreleased songs, established originals and covers, including “Kiss the Ladder” by Fleshwater, a fellow Massachusetts-based alternative metal band. Diaspora’s wall of sound played so hard that one of Drummer Nestor Castro’s cymbals fell off his set mid-song. Diaspora closed the concert out with a roar.

When asked about what people should get out of the concert, Haydar said,

“I feel like everybody [is]  scrambled right now with trying to finish up those final projects, or even just starting to think about them. People are graduating like me, so it’s all coming to a big end, and I just feel like people should have fun on one of our last weekends at Suffolk for this semester,” said Haydar, talking about what people should get out of the concert.