A 'Cute' and 'White Tie' Fall Fest

By Azia Squire / For The Pitt News

published: Sun, 4 Oct, 2009

Fall Fest 2009
Dan Bendit (Band Search winner), The White Tie Affair, Cute Is What We Aim For

Saturday’s Fall Fest featured pop-punk bands The White Tie Affair and Cute Is What We Aim For. With entertaining audience interactions and a series of successful songs, the bands definitely made Fall Fest worth attending.

Student Dan Bendit won Pitt Program Council’s Band Search, chosen by Pitt students through online voting.

He opened for the band guests, going on at 3:30 p.m. and playing an eclectic musical set, switching from acoustic guitar to keyboard throughout it.

The weather was nice, and the speaker system and sizeable crowd were pumped for the electro-pop of The White Tie Affair.

The band played a balanced combination of well-known and lesser-known hits, including “Allow Me to Introduce Myself ... Mr. Right,” “The Way Down” and “Candle (Sick and Tired).”

But it was the surprise cover of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” — loud and spot-on — that made the crowd go crazy.

Cute Is What We Aim For started on time at 5:30 p.m., and it played for about an hour while talking animatedly with the crowd.

At one point, guitarist Jeff Czum was instructed to keep the show PG-13 after an impromptu ditty about sex-related antics, but the self-proclaimed cute band finished off the set with a clean succession of hits from its latest album.

These included “Time” from the “Jennifer’s Body” soundtrack, “Marriage to Millions,” “Practice Makes Perfect” and a slow jam, “Lyrical Lies.”

With two well-liked bands performing, the crowd, a solid opener and the unthinkable — starting on time — this PPC-organized event was quite a success.