The loud, heavy sounds of cellos, not guitars, reverberated inside Baker University Center Theatre as Break of Reality performed a set of their “cello rock” Tuesday night.
The band is made up of cellists Brook Speltz, Patrick Laird and Laura Metcalf with percussionist Ivan Trevino, who started the night on djembe, an African hand drum, and switched to drum set after a brief intermission halfway through the set.
With the band’s set split into two halves, Trevino joked “things will get a little louder” before switching to his drum set as the band played classical music indebted to a hard rock style.
In between songs, Break of Reality members would talk briefly about each song. Trevino provoked the biggest reaction from the crowd when he said the group was going to play a cover of the “Game of Thrones” theme song.
“My wife suggested we play this song,” Trevino said. “We decided to do it a year later … so a lot of people may have seen it. Here’s what it sounds like.”
Near the beginning, Trevino explained the band’s sound was informed by rock and classical music because all the members enjoyed performing that style of music in addition to their experience of being classically trained on their respective instruments.
“We decided to not just play classical music,” he said. “We kind of bridge the gap between rock and classical.”
And they did. Break of Reality played an arrangement of Bach’s “Cello Suite” alongside covers of Killswitch Engage’s “My Curse” and ended with Tool’s “Lateralus.”
The band impressed audience members with their repertoire and performance.
“I liked how much they moved with the music,” said Hailey Hess, a junior studying marketing. “You could tell they were having a good time and that they were invested in it.”
Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of programming at the Campus Involvement Center, said the band was paid $5,000 for Break of Reality’s performance and residence.
The band, Holzaepfel said, drew in more than 200 people for the debut of the On the Edge Series in the Baker Center Theatre.
“This is the perfect group for this series because we wanted something really new for this space,” Holzapfel said. “It’s not your typical stuffy classical quartet … they’re doing some really interesting things for the genre and I think it worked well in the (space).”
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