Published: November 20, 2008

GO! Great Artists open mic night, which was held in the Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) student lounge on Nov. 6, showcased many talented FCLC students. Some of the performers at the event included Francis Pastorelle, Natasha Pascetta and Claire Colmar (also known as the Bangers) and Keely Browder. The event was plenty of fun, but also charitable, as the money raised is used to support Global Outreach (GO!) trips. While that’s one benefit of this event, self-promotion for the students is another. Many students who are aspiring musicians use this as a way to promote themselves. The event was filled with humor and talent, with many students deciding to cover popular songs. Many of the students also performed great songs that they had written, showcasing their talents as both musicians and songwriters.

Francis Pastorelle, FCLC ’10, and his band were one of the shining stars of the night. Their music was funny and catchy, reminiscent of Jack Black in Tenacious D. Their song “Aren’t You Glad You’ve Got Parents” was hilarious. Pastorelle explained how the band came up with the song, saying that they did it to playfully tease an adopted friend of theirs in high school. The song lists many reasons why we are glad that we have parents, so we don’t have to do all of the horrible things that the adoptee has to do.

Their song “Fallopian Tubes” was funny and raunchy. So raunchy in fact, they decided to rename it “Falltopian Tubes” in reference to the recent Falltopia event held on campus. They wrote this song about Francis’s ex-girlfriend; needless to say, they don’t say very nice things about her.

Pastorelle and his band are very popular and have performed at a lot of places, such as The Lucky Cat and Goodbye Blue Monday, both in Brooklyn, and at Six Flags for a Diocesan Youth Day. He used this event to help promote his band.

“It’s about as local as you can get, so it’s way easier to promote. If I tell people my band is performing in Brooklyn, they may not be able to go. But if I tell people it’s downstairs, there’s no reason they can’t go,” Pastorelle said. “A few people approached me later in the week to tell me the band was funny, so I used that as an opportunity to tell them about some upcoming gigs.”

Natasha Pascetta and Claire Colmar were also shining stars at the event. They call themselves The Bangers, and their cover of “Touch Myself” by the Divinyls was hilarious. The audience laughed, and even the musicians themselves couldn’t sing it with straight faces.

“I wanted to perform at the GO! show because it’s a great way to have a good time with your friends and peers and forget about schoolwork for a couple hours,” Pascetta said. When they sang “These Boots Were Made for Walking” by Nancy Sinatra, they asked the audience to sing along. The song was made even better by the fact that both Pascetta and Colmar were wearing thigh-high boots.

The night was filled with students singing cover songs. Arielle Polites, FCLC ’11, sung her version of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.” She didn’t have any background music or instruments, but she improvised by telling the audience to clap to provide the beat.

Paul Jochico, FCLC ’09, sung a cover of Alicia Keys’s “No One.” He was amusing, and it seemed as if he was doing karaoke, since he played the song on the computer as he read the song from a piece of paper.