The curious name of College Park band Pigeons Playing Ping Pong may be the second mystery on students’ minds at Santa Fe Cafe Wednesday night. Patrons new and old have a right to wonder how much more live music they can expect to hear at the bar, which for more than 20 years has made live music its main sell.
After closing last spring, Santa Fe opened sporadically at the beginning of the past fall semester, in later months remaining open regularly only on certain nights. A live act has yet to perform there this school year.
The Diamondback caught up with Wednesday’s headliners just as they were putting the finishing touches on their first album, recorded at the university’s WMUC studios, set for release at the show Wednesday.
“Last year and the year before, we played [Santa Fe] pretty frequently,” guitarist Jeremy Schon said. “We love to play there and really look forward to playing.”
Students looking for live music should be pleased to see the bar’s calendar features several live bands up until the beginning of April, including a few tribute bands. Fans of the bar seem hopeful for more.
“I go to Fe at least once or twice a week,” junior American studies major Dan Weininger said. “I would like them to bring [live music] back.”
The rest of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong seemed excited to be the first band to headline the reopened Santa Fe. The band has changed substantially since its past frequenting of the bar.
Its music, for the sake of comparison, could be called a funkier, more concise Phish, with plenty of room to improvise but without anything too sprawling. Bands such as the Grateful Dead and Moe. are listed as influences.
Officially, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong has been in existence for two years, though originally, the band just played coffee houses as a duo composed of Schon and vocalist-guitarist Greg Ormont. Those two, along with bassist Ben Carrey and drummer Dan Schwartz, have just recently started to take their music seriously.
“Since we last played for Santa Fe, we decided to step up booking and take it more seriously,” Schon said. “We want to play music in as many different cities and as many different venues as we can.”
The band noted its turning point between being just for fun and a serious enterprise was winning last year’s battle of the bands to play Art Attack. Winning the competition allowed the band to perform on the same stage as the rap star Ludacris.
Flash forward nine months, and though the band is back playing its local college bar, it has a steady list of shows booked in Washington, Baltimore and New York. The band is intent on building on what it had at the university after its members graduate in the spring.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong plays at Santa Fe tonight. Tickets are $5.
waldo@umdbk.com
