This year’s mystery frosh week concert featured popular indie acts Plants and Animals, Hollerado and The New Pornographers. Despite their popularity, the performances were met with mixed reviews from the audience, who hoped for a more energy-inducing electro lineup.

“It’s not the type of music I generally listen to, but I don’t mind it. The energy and lighting is good,” said Kaleena Rakhra, ArtSci ’18. “It’s a fun way to get everyone to come together.”

Plants and Animals, an indie-rock band from Montreal, opened the concert with their soothing tunes, setting the tone for the rest of the concert.

The crowd seemed to be relaxed and content throughout, enjoying the music while conversing within small groups of friends.

As the night progressed, Hollerado, an Ottawa-based band, took the stage and engaged the crowd, relaying eccentric tour stories and dynamic set-list from their most recent album .

The band did a good job of reeling the crowd in and keeping them entertained in ways separate from just playing music for the audience, and Hollerado’s performance seemed to be the most satisfying out of all three to the crowd.

“[Hollerado] is really good. They pump up the crowd and their stories are hilarious. I’m really happy with the choices that they’ve made so far,” said Allison Cobert, ArtSci ’18.

At this point in the concert, the crowd visibly warmed up to the lush, chill tunes, foregoing their visible disappointment with the lack of EDM.

The New Pornographers, a generally well-known Canadian indie-rock band from Vancouver, headlined the show. Some attendees left at the beginning of the set.

The New Pornographers have ample experience playing to relaxed crowds. But perhaps a pop band like Down With Webster, which headlined last year’s Frosh Concert, would have been a better choice to appeal to the pop-loving masses.

“I expected a pop band [to headline]. I expected a little bit more of a hype concert, more upbeat and dance oriented than a mellow band,” said Calvin Palmer, ArtSci ‘17.

He added that the organizers could have provided a more diverse selection of music at the concert.

“I’m not unhappy with them – they’re good bands but there could’ve been a lot of choices they would’ve enjoyed more,” he said. “Although it was a good genre of music, if they had one pop band and one indie band to make it more of a mix it would’ve catered more to the frosh. I know a lot of people left early.”

Although this was the general consensus from first- and second-years alike, the concert itself ran smoothly and gave the crowd music that was genuinely pleasing to listen to.