The start of a captivating night from artists Twisted Teens and Greg Freeman began with the Middlebury College’s very own campus radio station WRMC. The Start of School (SOS) Festival has been a tradition for 14 years at Middlebury, and they delivered this year with another high energy pair of performances.
Out on McCullough Lawn on Sept. 18, a crowd of Middlebury students formed, buzzing with excitement. WRMC booked and organized the performers with financial support from the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB).
Traveling all the way from New Orleans, The Twisted Teens with their lead singer Caspian Hollywell performed a night to remember.
“Twisted Teens’ lead singer has a unique voice that I am obsessed with,” Idanesi Ojior ’27, co-concert committee manager of WRMC, said in an interview with The Campus. Hollywell engaged everyone to sing and dance along with every note. The way he swayed and danced along with the crowd, while meshing his voice with the idyllic sounds of Santo’s pedal steel was just as charming as his lyrics.
Watching Twisted Teens illuminate the lawn with their country-funk-folk music was “magical and so fun,” Kate McCall ’30 said. The strong, one-of-a-kind, “weeping” sound is achieved by their guitarist RJ “The Razor” Santos. With his guitar skills and Hollywell’s voice, the band delivered a blend of raw emotion and unforgettable music that is entirely unique. Amazingly, most of Twisted Teens’ songs are recorded from Hollywell's apartment in New Orleans. The band calls this their “DIY approach.”
The second half of the concert included a stellar performance from indie rock artist Greg Freeman. Arguably, the biggest hit of the night was Freeman’s “Come and Change My Body,” The song had students jumping and singing, even if they did not know the words.
In 2022, Freeman released his debut album “I Looked Out” with no PR campaign or label, but it still found an audience. On Friday night, students, faculty and staff were lucky enough to be that audience.
Freeman lived in Burlington for several years following his time as a student at the University of Vermont. His 2025 album “Burnover” received high praise and was awarded an 8.5 from Pitchfork — rightfully so. His physical presence on stage amounts to a relatively short and quite frankly, regular looking guy, but when he belts out lyrics like “You can break me open, I don’t really / Care about anything at all / See these bones entangled / What am I? What do I become?,” you are completely awash with emotion.
During his set, some students spread out, grooving along while enjoying delicious food trucks, while others wriggled as close to the stage as possible. The blue and purple lights set the scene, the air was cool and the mood was pure first-week energy.
The event took several hours of planning and coordination, according to Oijor. “It’s fun to see everything coming together because last semester we found out we had these positions and then we had to find talent to bring to campus that fits the wider Middlebury community, like what sounds are flowing around and what students are listening to,” he said.
“There’s a lot to consider when planning this event, it’s not just personal taste. Seeing the event come together in the end was fulfilling, it filled my heart.”
Myrah Valmyr ’27, co-concert committee manager alongside Ojior feels that it was exciting how the event all came together. “Getting those confirmation emails that the artist is actually going to come to campus and then the days leading up and getting promo prepared and then actually seeing them in the flash, like it only got more and more exciting,” she said in an interview with The Campus.
“It exceeded my expectations honestly, I didn’t realize how thrilling it was actually gonna be in person so it's such a gratifying experience because there's a point A and there's a point B and it's then reached and actualized,” Valmyr remarked.
For a station that usually brings people together through headphones and technology, this show brought the community together in person. By the final song, students had put down their cameras, immersed in the entertainment in front of them.
For first years like Zachary Rodgers ’30, the show was “lively and a great way to bring everyone together.” For seniors like Valmyr, it was “so nostalgic that this is the last one.” Valmyr feels that this show “is such a tangible award, you do something and then a big event happens and it feels like a tied bow.”
Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Norah Khan ’27 contributed reporting to this article.
