By Sebastian Gonzalez, age 10 with Preston Leong, age 17
On August 19th, 2024, a bunch of exceptionally talented campers performed their original songs in front of all of WriCampia at Wrichella in Danbee’s Field House.
Opening the show, The Blah Blah Blahs presented “The Wrong Song.” The audience cracked up as Daniela A. and Wilson R. criticized their own song with lines such as, “We’re making up the lyrics as we go along!” and “We’re enraging all the critics.” Daniela encouraged the audience to sing along, and if they didn’t know the lyrics, to “just make it up on the spot!” Daniela sang and played the ukulele while Wilson sang, although he too plays ukulele. Those two young ukulelists loved performing their goofy little song to us.
Aaron E.-T., Counselor Sam, and Songwriting Instructor Malcolm performed the first and last rock ‘n’ roll song of the evening, “Falling Down.” Aaron was on keys and vocals, Malcolm was on the electric guitar, and Sam was on drums. The audience rocked their hearts out as the band played that banger with powerful lyrics, and arguably even more powerful drums.
Right after that, Counselor Scarlett went on stage to sing “Happy Birthday” to Nico B., and, of course, everybody joined in on wishing them a happy birthday.
Mid-concert, the audience was swept by a wave of disappointment when they heard that Wilson would not be performing his legendary song about a passed snail, “Oh My Snail,” (that may have just been me) but they were uplifted by all the other amazing songs he performed. He was on ukulele and vocals for all three of his solos. Wilson’s first song was titled “It Was Enchanting,” ending with the line “I thought I had a crush, but it wasn’t enchanting,” which stirred up quite the reaction from the audience. His next song, “Once Upon A Time,” revolved around magic. Finally, his last song, called “Straight A Student,” was about climate change. Every one of those got a good laugh from the audience.
A while later, Madeleine and the Bugs (Madeleine F., Wilbur N., Jun L.) came on stage to perform “Paris 1.” After announcing the name of the song, Madeleine said “there is no Paris 2. Not yet.” Madeleine was singing, Wilbur on the electric guitar, and Jun on bass. When the song finished, Sam hopped on the drums with them for their next song, “Isaiah.”
The moment Hazel S. walked on stage, the crowd went absolutely wild. Hazel performed two stunning songs on ukulele and mic. The first was “Little Moments.” A couple days prior to the show, they were interviewed and described the song as “just a song about random little moments, you know?” The audience laughed at some of the “random little moments” Hazel shared. The second song, however, definitely received three times as many laughs. Humorously titled, “Burn The Witches” is a song that Hazel described in the same interview as “a comedic take on the Salem Witch Trials.” They told the audience to repeat after them: “Killing is bad, killing is wrong, there should be a word that’s more strong!” In the song, they repeated the words “old white man” a few times, getting many laughs from the audience. The song was honestly hilarious.
Wilbur N. (also known by their musician name, Willowbee) performed three songs, all of which they played acoustic guitar and sang. Two of those, titled “Bruised” and “The Perfectionist,” they wrote here at WriCampia. The other, “What’s It Worth,” was not written here. First played was “What’s It Worth,” then “Bruised,” and finally “The Perfectionist.” All of those will be released on Spotify in September! Go check them out! (@Willowbee)
Cate S. and Violet C. then got on the stage to play three songs. The duo is jokingly called Two Little Pigs, or more commonly 2LP, as at the previous Wrichella they were in a band named Three Little Pigs, but one of the band members didn’t come to camp this year. They played “I Can’t,” “Someone You Know, and “Last Night.” The audience became one, soaking in their music as they waved their arms in the air together.
Every Wrichella, we must always bid a bittersweet farewell to our senior campers, in song form, of course. The final performance of the evening featured Lex and Madeleine as vocalists, backed up by the counselors Grace on the bass, Scarlett on electric guitar, and Sam on the drums. They all played “Final Goodbye” as a toast to Lex — and all of the seniors — as it was their last year at WriCampia.
After that song, campers began to chant “Swedish Fish” to beckon the legendary but broken-up band of now-counselors to the stage. There were rumors of Swedish Fish performing in the show, but they unfortunately ended up being false. Even one of the members of the band, Sam, said that “[they] might make a surprise appearance.” Another of the old band members, Able, visited WriCampia just for the show. When asked after the show why they did not perform, Sam answered with, “the campers needed the spotlight.” Well, maybe next year!
