The student band decor has been disqualified from performing at Spring Fling on April 25.
The band’s disqualification comes after it played with non-Williams students while performing during last Saturday’s Battle of the Bands. JYNX!, decor, and Space Bar were initially voted by the student audience to open for the electronic music duo Snow Strippers at Spring Fling. Following decor’s disqualification, supermassivefrog will take their place in the event’s lineup.
All Campus Entertainment (ACE) Co-President Silas Fleissig ’26 confirmed that the organization officially disqualified decor from performing at Spring Fling. “Battle of the Bands is meant for Williams student bands,” Fleissig wrote in an email to the Record.
Student Involvement and Events Assistant Bri Rousseau informed decor of their disqualification by email on Feb. 19. “Battle of the Bands is meant to be reserved specifically for Williams bands, and so we are unable to invite decor to continue on to the next round of Battle of the Bands in April,” Rousseau wrote in the email.
Members of decor expressed frustration about being disqualified. Lead singer and guitarist Jamie Evarts ’28 said that ACE did not communicate that the bands needed to be exclusively composed of current Williams students. “I don’t think it is ever fair to institute a rule that did not exist prior to a competition in order to disqualify the members of that competition,” Evarts told the Record.
The band was formed at the College this fall by Evarts, bassist Peter Deegan-Krause ’28, and two of Evarts’ close friends, neither of whom are affiliated with the College. One of the two students is from Boston and has previously visited and played with decor at Williams, while the band’s drummer is an undergraduate student at New York University.
Since being founded, the group has only performed on the College’s campus, which Evarts said connects decor closely to the College. “I don’t think a real argument can be made that we’re not a Williams band,” he said.
Deegan-Krause expressed a similar sentiment. “We are a Williams band through and through,” he said.
The band members said they harbor no resentment against ACE. “I understand that, if your goal is to platform Williams College students through music and you can platform three students instead of two, you’re achieving your goal better,” Evarts said.
Despite their disqualification, decor’s members are looking forward to Spring Fling. “I couldn’t think of a more deserving band to take our spot than [supermassivefrog],” Evarts said. “All the bands that are playing at Spring Fling — they’re great.”
Ronald Deng ’28, a member of supermassivefrog, said that his band knew decor was performing with members not affiliated with the College before the Battle of the Bands. “We have nothing against decor at all, we’ve done shows together, and they’re awesome,” Deng said. “We were not going to bring up anything about how two of them weren’t Williams students because we like them as musicians.”
Supermassivefrog is looking forward to the opportunity to perform at Spring Fling. “We won’t let the Williams community down,” Deng said. “We are going to try our best to put on a good show.”
