Two days away from Lawnparties, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) has yet to announce a student opener. A long-held tradition for the concert event, a student ensemble performs an opening act for the celebrity guest(s), bringing a slice of Princeton’s art scene to the star-studded affair.
While the rest of the student body was left in anticipation, The Daily Princetonian heard a rumor: Oh S*** Look Out, a student band created just last year, would take the stage on Sunday.
The band confirmed to the ‘Prince’ they were set to perform. If that was the case, we wondered, why was their performance still being kept under wraps so close to Lawnparties?
Well, that’s because they may not be the opener.
According to the USG Social Committee, they are waiting to hear if their production vendor has the equipment the band requested. If the company cannot provide the equipment, it’s possible Oh S*** Look Out may no longer be the opener.
“There’s a possibility? That’s crazy!” said Samara Samad ’25, lead singer of the band.
It turns out the ‘Prince’ was the one to break the news to the band.
While the USG figures out who will actually open Lawnparties, which they anticipate revealing by Saturday afternoon, the ‘Prince’ caught up with three of the band’s members before they played a gig at Terrace on Thursday night to kick off the academic year. The interview delves into who Oh S*** Look Out are — namely, a rock band taking the eating club scene by storm made up of a group of friends who love to jam.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
The Daily Princetonian: Somebody from the USG was saying that there’s something happening with equipment that could make it difficult. So basically, the question I had for you guys is: did you request any weird or abnormal equipment?
Ashley Abramson ’25: Not at all. Just like drums and amps and microphones.
Samara Samad ’25: No funky stuff.
AA: Not any keys, not any winds. We are, like, the most basic, bare-bones band: two guitars, bass, drum, singers.
DP: What is everybody’s role in the band?
LS: Leah Shefferman [’27], drummer.
SS: Samara Samad, lead singer.
AA: Ashley Abramson, I play bass, and then Mason Hooks [’25] and Tait Oberg [’27] both play guitar.
DP: And the name of that band is?
AA: It's Oh S*** Look Out. Shortened to OSLO.
SS: If you had to shorten it, or like, censor it …
AA: It could just be like, “Oh [letter] S” and stars. [Oh S***]
SS: OSLO is kind of lame.
DP: No, OSLO’s cool. So, what is the origin story of this band?
AA: So, we’re all in the Princeton University Rock Ensemble (PURE) here; Samara is the former president, and it’s a very successful rock group on campus. People audition with lots of different types of instruments. The goal of the group is to bring people together who play rock instruments for the purpose of forming these independent bands or just like, play music and have fun.
A lot of times bands kind of form from that. You meet people who you vibe with, and we said, hey, we want to play some shows at the eating clubs or wherever, or we just like to play music together. Yeah, that’s kind of the origin of the band. It’s very simple.
DP: Are a lot of the previous ones that have headlined lawnparties from PURE?
OSLO: Oh, yeah.
SS: Maybe not all members, but a lot of them.
LS: And we played some gigs together, the five of us, last semester.
SS: Yeah, at eating clubs. So we played enough gigs together that we said, “Hey, this group is really fun. And let’s submit one of the videos from the eating clubs that our friends took on their iPhones and see if we can play at Lawnparties.”
DP: Have you ever played anything this big before? As big as Lawnparties?
AA: Samara has.
SS: I was in another band, in the last band [to perform at Lawnparties].
DP: What band was that?
SS: Weather Boy.
DP: So, how are you feeling about this Lawnparties? Are you excited?
SS: I’m really excited.
AA: I’m a little bit nervous. I’ve never headlined anything like this, and I’ve actually applied to be the Lawnparties headliner a couple times before, and I never thought that I would. I’m a senior now, and I kind of thought that my time had passed for that. So this was a really, really exciting turn of events.
DP: Are you all seniors?
LS: I’m a sophomore. Tait is also a sophomore.
SS: We’re seniors. I’m a senior. It’s really fun to just play with friends and have this experience. Like, it’s wonderful to be opening for these headliners, but it’s also just so great to be having beautiful, fun times with your friends. That’s essentially what it is. Regardless of crowds or what the setting is, it's just, you know, making music and having fun.
DP: What kind of music do you usually do?
LS: Rock-oriented. Rock and jazz depending on the setting.
DP: Do you play any originals or mostly covers?
SS: Not in this band. Weather Boy, we did some originals. But this year, it’s a quick turnaround. This will be all covers, but in the future, originals would be fun too.
DP: Do you have a specific band memory that you look back on with fondness, or a crazy thing that happened to you guys, a story?
SS: Something always goes wrong.
AA: We’re dealing with so much stuff, and being in front of a lot of people.
I would say we were playing a gig at Cannon. And it was packed. It was really hot, it was really loud, it was really fun, it was exciting, and the vibes were great. And the guitarist, Mason, was playing, he’s absolutely shredding. He broke two of his strings. It just snapped. We didn’t have a backup guitar. And so, Mason runs from Cannon all the way back to his dorm — which was close to the UStore, so across campus — to grab a second guitar and then ran all the way back.
He came back sweating, and we were just improv-ing; we had another guitar, so we played some songs that we could play with one guitar, and they still sounded great, and we kept the crowd going. It was stressful, but it was exciting.
DP: Sounds like you all have experienced rolling with the punches.
SS: Yeah, it teaches you to be scrappy. Like, find solutions on the spot. Not only are we the musicians playing, but we’re also our own roadies; we’re moving the equipment, promoting, we’re doing all this stuff.
DP: Do you have a favorite song to play together?
AA: I really like playing Ohio.
LS: I was gonna say Ohio!
AA: It starts off really slow — very slow intro for almost a minute, and then it just builds, builds, builds. And Samara has this amazing belt voice. I think it builds so beautifully, and it’s got a great guitar riff. The drums are really fun. And the bass, of course. I mean, I love when I get a good bass line.
[indiscernible Terrace Club mumbles]
DP: You like Mamma Mia?!
AA: Rock covers of pop songs are always really fun.
DP: Can you give me any sneak peek of what you might be playing?
SS: Let’s just say it goes from pop to ...
AA: Absolute metal.
SS: We’re really doing a fun, diverse set because as the opener, we don’t have a lot of time. We don’t get to play a lot of songs.
DP: How many do you get?
SS: We’re playing for about 20 minutes. Normally, we’re used to playing between an hour and two hours, and we want to play songs that the crowd may vibe with regardless of their music taste.
DP: Do you have anything else you want to add that you want the Princeton student body to know about OSLO or yourselves?
SS: We’re just ready for a rocking year.
Editor’s note: Oh S*** Look Out will not perform at Lawnparties and the USG did forgo a student opener for the Fall 2024 Lawnparties.
Raphaela Gold is an associate Features editor and head Archives editor at the ‘Prince.’
Bryan Zhang is a head Copy editor and senior Puzzle constructor for the ‘Prince.’ He avidly avoids writing, except for today.