Scircle, the apartment affectionately nicknamed by Ithaca College junior roommates Sophia Spring, Alex Blakely, Zoe McCartney, AJ Preston and Sarah Bonner, has hosted three band shows during the 2024-25 academic year. On April 7, Scircle announced its final show of the year.
The show will be April 26, marking the six-month anniversary of its first official show. The lineup includes IC bands Guesthaus, The Brood, Beer Cat, Vampira Death Cult and Bisexual Lighting along with Binghamton band Trouble Chute. Spring said she is proud of what Scircle accomplished in the past two semesters.
“I love all my roommates so much, and it’s so special that we were able to have this experience,” Spring said.
Sophomore Noah Robinson, member of IC bands Bisexual Lighting and The Brood, said that over the past two semesters, Scircle has become more than just an apartment. Robinson said that he went out to dinner recently with Alex Siegelson, of Beer Cat, and the pair were recognized by the cashier.
“[He was] just this random dude that had been to another Scircle show,” Robinson said. “It’s cool that people not only recognize us, but they recognize the location. They really view it as a venue.”
Scircle is not the first Circle Apartment to become a venue for IC musicians. Spring said she and her roommates were inspired by an apartment from the previous year, Pimlau’s Place, that would throw themed shows.
Wallace Petruziello ’24, former resident of Pimlau’s Place, said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, there was barely a music scene at IC.
“I think there were literally two bands on all of campus, and there weren’t really shows anywhere,” Petruziello said. “But then there was a group of Park students that decided they wanted to try throwing shows at their Circles Apartment. It was very interesting, because I think they literally would just take whatever artists were on campus.”
In Petruziello’s senior year, Pimlau’s Place was born and he said it became an integral part of revitalizing the IC music scene after COVID-19. Petruziello said he hoped that Pimlau’s Place could help IC students who had not found their place in the college night life yet.
“It was really about bringing bands together [and] inspiring people to start their own bands,” Petruziello said. “It was about trying to make sure that all of the underclassmen who were just starting bands had a place to play their first shows and … find their way into the scene.”
After Petruziello graduated in Spring 2024, Spring and her roommates took up the responsibility of becoming an on-campus venue. One of the first-year members of IC band All Nine Bite at the time told Spring that they were introduced to the IC music scene in her apartment.
“My first music scene introduction was Pimlau’s,” Spring said. “So we’re keeping the cycle chugging on this beautiful community.”
Spring said that after hosting a house party in the beginning of Fall 2024, the idea of throwing a show in their space seemed more tangible. Because of their involvement in the college’s Open Mic Night and IC Unknown Stage, Spring and junior Dominick Petrucci realized that they had the equipment needed to make Scircle into a venue.
Spring said that when they host a show it becomes an all-hands-on-deck effort — which includes cooking dinner for the bands because of the all-day setup.
Robinson said that he’s always happy to help make dinner because cooking huge batches of pasta for everyone makes the shows feel home-brewed.
“That’s one thing I love about [Scircle], is I feel like it brings us so much closer together.” Robinson said.
The first show that Scircle put on this semester, named “Let’s Get Started,” brought Petruziello’s band, little slicer, back into the Circle Apartments..
“[The members of little slicer] are people I look up to, like they’re gods, and having them perform in my apartment [was] just crazy,” Spring said.
Before the show, Petruziello told Robinson that the last time he performed in a circle apartment, it was his own. Robinson, a fan of Pimlau’s before knowing Petruziello, said it was hard not to act like a fan.
“It was so nerve wracking,” Robinson said. “I’m like, ‘I’m cooking pasta for these guys.’ Before I even thought I could ever be a part of the Ithaca music scene, I was going to their shows.”
Despite being one of the oldest people in the room, Petruziello said he and his bandmates did not feel out of place.
“It was really reassuring to see [that] after a couple months of having to play elsewhere and not quite finding a new audience yet outside of Ithaca, [we could] come home and play for a crowd that had the same passion that we felt that we were playing for a year ago,” Petruziello said.
The crowd at Scircle grows each time, with word of mouth spreading stories from the previous shows. Blakely said he finds that with the higher number of crowd members, there are also more photographers. Because of the diverse people that the IC music scene attracts, Blakely was inspired to focus on the crowds as the subject of his photos.
“I mean, everybody’s taking photos of the bands,” Blakely said. “But there’s something also just so interesting about the people viewing. They all have their own styles, they all like their own things, they’re all incredibly different most of the time. It’s so weird seeing somebody who is just so stoic and almost angry looking and then you see the person next to them, cartoonishly happy, jumping up and down, excited for the next song, excited for the next band.”
After this semester ends, the residents of Scircle will have different living situations. Robinson said that it is only right to let someone else have their Pimlau’s moment.
Passing down the responsibility of hosting these shows seems to be becoming an IC music scene tradition.
“I was really hoping we could leave behind a stronger scene than I came in with,” Petruziello said. “[Pimlau’s] was sort of like the defining part of college for me, and it’s probably going to be one of the things I remember most fondly of being at IC.”
Part of the appeal of these apartment venues is that they have a time limit. One year of hosting shows, and then someone else will take the reins. Robinson said that this impermanence is one of the coolest parts of Scircle.
“[Scircle was] so flash in the pan,” said Robinson. “I feel like it really epitomizes the college experience to me.”
Blakely said he is grateful to have captured these moments in Scircle through his photography.
“It’s such an emotional thing,” Blakely said. “It’ll mean something to the next and upcoming music scenes that come here to Ithaca and all these photos, all these articles, all these things written about them, will inspire more.”
