R-Pizza serves a slice of the local music scene

The scent of oregano, sweat and beer filled the air at R-Pizza Jan.26  as the restaurant hosted its first show ever. A cover of $5 bought several hours of music and a complimentary slice of pizza.

The show featured local acts such as Chump Party, Baby D, Vulgo and Allypantz.

Allypantz is Ally King, co-owner of R-Pizza. She started off the night with an acoustic set, and her song “Hobo’s Lullaby” was a hit.
Co-owner Brandon King said the event was a success.

“It went really well and we had a good turnout,” Brandon King said. “We will probably do something like
this again.”

Members of the band Chump Party once lived in town for school, and they were happy to come back.

“Tony and I lived here for years, and it’s very exciting to be playing at R-Pizza,” said Paul Squyer, drummer for Chump Party.

Chump Party is comprised of Johnny Berkness (guitar and vocals), Benjamin Swank (guitar), Tony Helland (bass) and Paul Squyer (drums). Squyer is also part of the electronic group CH6R6Z6RD, and he wrote a song about Vermillion not too long ago.

Each member of Chump Party is a music scene staple.

“We’ve all danced around each other for a long time in musical acts,” Helland said. “We’ve been very tight, and the direction has been leaning toward putting out a record that catalogues some of the things that we’ve been working on over the past
two years.”

Some of the themes in Chump Party’s music are heavy and fast-paced. Squyer defined the genre as “pizza,” which fit the environment at R-Pizza. Berkness said the lyrics aren’t as important as the sound.

“The songs have no meaning,” Berkness said. “They have more feeling than they have meaning. I usually (sing) some pretty nasty stuff. The lyrics reflect the theme.”

R-Pizza employee and Vermillion native Dylan Daniels is Baby D, and she went on before Chump Party. Daniels was the driving force between bringing these local acts together. She’s lived in town for most of her life and grew up in the small but mighty
music scene.

“The people that work at R-Pizza are really cool and are big music supporters,” Daniels said. “A lot of them used to throw these really DIY punk shows in the basement of the Washington Street Arts Center when I was growing up here.”

Daniels attributed her interest in music to having an all ages venue in town.

“I think it’s awesome when you can get the middle and high schoolers involved,” Daniels said.

There was a concern for space and sound at the venue, but it was a good problem to have,
Daniels said.

“They’ve been talking about doing a show forever there, so I said we’ll just figure it out,” Daniels said. “Th’ Rattletrap has a PA system, so we borrowed that. They’re all pretty stoked to have this going on at the shop.”

Baby D is Daniels’ alter ego and stage name that came about from her days as a member of Th’ Rattletrap, a band she started when she lived in Sioux Falls. She released the split EP titled “Th’ Rattletrap presents Baby D meets Pale Norse” with bandmate David Sahl.

“We were planning on doing that anyway just because we wanted to explore songwriting on our own,” Daniels said. “We’re not disbanded, we’re on hiatus.”

Daniels said the hiatus would make for good songwriting.

“It’s good for me to figure out how to write,” Daniels said. “I tend to write kind of prettier things with more reverb and he’s got more of this aggressive guitar style.”

Vulgo is Phil Thoendel, who displayed his looping pedal abilities before Baby D played. Vulgo also played bass as part of the backing band for Baby D.

Sophomore music major Ian Reiland-Smith said he was happy to see Chump Party live.

“The music scene is pretty sweet here,” Reiland-Smith said. “It’s good to be at a show
at R-Pizza.”