By Ash Newton

For The Diamondback

The Baltimore Room in Stamp Student Union erupted into chaos Saturday as raucous students pushed chairs and tables off to the side. The crowd whirled around the space, threw haymakers and two-stepped on the linoleum floor.

The cause of the rhythmic violence was a good one. Teen Age Riot, a DMV-based artist collective and event organization, held their “gothic gala,” a benefit concert for Remora House D.C. — an organization that distributes aid to unhoused and recently housed people in Washington, D.C.

Established in 2020, Remora House originally provided aid and COVID-19 prevention supplies like handmade face masks to D.C.’s unhoused population. The organization has steadily expanded to provide hotel rooms and SmarTrip metro cards for unhoused people.

The benefit was one of many concerts Teen Age Riot has hosted to raise money for mutual aid projects and legal advocacy, said showrunner and sophomore economics major Arianna Jahangir, who started the coalition when she was in high school.

She said she immediately saw an opportunity during lockdown to merge two of her biggest interests: aid organizing and underground music.

“Over COVID, I was reading a lot of political literature and realized there’s a lot of shit wrong with the world right now,” Jahangir said. “I started reaching out to mutual aid groups in the area.”

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She learned of Remora House and other mutual aid groups through social media alongside the evening’s acts and said she was excited to bring them to this university.

“It doesn’t matter how weird or messed up you are,” she said. “You have a place here.”

Post-punkers Heartswings played a set of forlorn and moody bass-driven songs inspired by bands like Interpol and The Cure. Hailing from College Park, members of the band expressed an appreciation for the local music scene on and around campus.

“A lot of our lyrics cater towards anti-establishment,” said bassist and vocalist Jake Blake, who graduated from this university in 2024. “Playing these kinds of shows, where the money is going to places where it should go, is great.”

Nu-metal revivalists Seeking Samsara performed covers of Machinehead and Korn alongside original songs. Anesthesiac delivered their trademark “scrudge metal,” a combination of sludge, death metal and hardcore influences.

“We’ve worked with [Teen Age Riot] before,” Anesthesiac vocalist Aaralyn Shelton said. “The music scene around the area in Maryland and Baltimore is really tight knit. … It’s a really good scene, people are very sweet, very supportive.”

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Hardcore outfit Lagoon closed the show with brutal intensity. Showcasing a strong grindcore influence, the band played relentless blastbeat sections and urgent, guttural vocals, as well as a cover of Napalm Death’s genre-defining “Scum.” One of their original songs encapsulated the event’s mission as the audience headbanged and moshed: “We’re living in a nightmare / when will it end?”

“Just helping people who don’t have the means to help themselves,” Jahangir said, “That’s what I love about this.”