Bitter Sweet made an explosive return to the stage with a heartbreak-hit-filled performance, headlining the Anti-Valentine’s show on the VTSU-Lyndon campus.
The icy night quickly heated up with Seairra a breakout solo artist. She took to the stage with no introduction and stunned the audience with a heartful rendition of the Renee Rapp single “Tattoos”. After this powerful song she raised the energy with the pop hit “She’s All I Want To Be” by Tate McRae. After performing several other breakup hits from popular artists Renee Rapp, Tate McRae, and Sara Barrelies, she wrapped up her set with her latest single “No Sympathy” that was released in 2023. Although she performed solo without a band Seairra’s set captured the audience’s attention with her incredible voice and engaging and emotional stage presence.
The next artist to take to the stage was Charlotte Rae. The singer/songwriter was joined by a backing band consisting of Jared Boren on drums, Mollie Jean on Bass, and Chris Finn on Guitar. The performance opened with a yet to be released original titled “Wants and Needs”. Following up with an incredible performance of “What I didn’t know” from her debut EP Divine which was released a few months ago in August 2024. Charlotte engaged with the audience joking that “All my songs are about breakups, so this is perfect”. The first cover of her performance was “Silver Spring” by Fleetwood Mac. Charlotte perfectly captured the emotion and history of the song through her performance “casting a curse” on the audience. After performing two more original songs, “Twin Bed” a single included on the Divine EP featuring Chris Finn and another unreleased song titled “She Gets on Top”, Charlotte had the audience singing along with a cover of “Casual” from Chappell Roan’s first album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. To round out her heartbreak filled set Charlotte performed her highest streamed song from her EP Divine “Ease My Mind”.
Bitter Sweet closed the night as they took the stage for the first time since the Huston Hill Music Festival in early August 2024. As the first headlining show for the student band Bitter Sweet was ready to bring an explosive sound to the small stage. The high energy hard rock band opened with a bang performing their cover of “It’s not you” from Hailstorms self-titled album Hailstorm. The bands front woman Mollie Jean joined by bassist Ben Perreault, guitarist Noah LaPoint, and new drummer Jimi Piluso, continued with the high energy performance introduced the band saying that “we will be playing some songs that aren’t bittersweet but actually angry and SPITEFUL” leading into the bands newest unreleased song “SPITE”. The band continued to rock out pulling the audience to the front of the stage as they covered hits from bands such as The Warning, Fall Out Boy, The Pretty Reckless, Three Days Grace, and Finger Eleven. Throughout the performance the band captured the audience’s attention and had many folks singing along. By the time the band introduced their final song a fan favorite original “Waist Deep” a yet to be released single with rumors of production in the works. As the band announced the end of their set the audience shouted for an encore. Bitter Sweet obliged pulling out an incredible performance of their single “Hero Complex” that released in time for their GreggFest performance May 2024. The high energy performance from not only from singer Mollie Jean but also bassist and lead guitarist make Bitter Sweet a must-see powerhouse featuring hard rock covers and originals. The Lyndon community and fans of the band look forward to seeing their performance during MEISA’s Battle of the Bands and hope for a return to the GreggFest stage this May.
BITTER SWEET
Charlotte Rae
Seairra
VERMONT STATE UNIVERSITY-LYNDON
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