Malcolm at Mason
Monday, May 2, 2011
As another semester is winding down, George Mason University celebrated with the GMU Program Board’s annual Mason Day on Friday. Students (and the general public for $10) ran rampant from carnival ride to ride with cotton candy and funnel cakes in hand outside the Patriot Center. The even bigger attraction came later that night with a performance from the band, The Plain White T’s. The crowd went wild for their new hit, “Rhythm of Love,” and an assortment of older songs like “1, 2, 3, 4” and “Hey There Delilah.” But the event that really seemed to get students going was a performance from the opening band, You Hang Up.
The pop rock group hit the stage, and students crowded around, turning to ask their friends, “Is that really him?” and some even chanting, “Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm!” in between songs. The band’s drummer, Frankie Muniz, gave a sheepish smile as “Malcolm in the Middle” fans remembered him from his days on the hit TV show.
Muniz says, “I’ve never done anything college-based until this band, but I’ve realized when we play these shows that everybody who’s in college now was 10 to 14 years old when ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ started, which was the perfect age to watch it. It makes me feel relevant again.”
Muniz, now 25, recently made his transition from TV and movies to music. He started playing drums when he was 12, but says he didn’t get serious about it until he joined the band about a year ago. You Hang Up members Aaron Brown, Chris Brown and Henry Ebarb introduced themselves to Muniz via MySpace after learning he had moved to Phoenix and was interested in making music.
Over the past year, You Hang Up has been working on their record, touring a little and doing lots of fly-out gigs, many at schools like Mason. “It’s cool to be known as something, but the Malcolm thing only gets you so far,” says Muniz. “It gets people interested so hopefully we can bring the Malcolm fans in to check out the music, because the music is awesome!”
Judging from the two-hour-long line of students waiting to snap a photo with Frankie and his band, You Hang Up lured in some new fans of its music on Mason Day. After patiently signing hundreds of autographs, the band confessed it had been a long day for them. They pulled an all-nighter to make it from Phoenix to Fairfax and were off as soon as the line died down to prepare for their show with Lee DeWyze in West Virginia the next day.
“We didn’t even get to ride the Zipper,” Muniz says, pointing to the flashing carnival lights across the parking lot. “I haven’t even had a water today!”
So, what does the future hold for this busy band? Lead singer, Aaron Brown says, “We actually just got done recording our debut album. It literally just got done being mixed yesterday. Right now we’re in talks with a couple of record labels, so we are trying to iron out the details to get a release date out to our fans. That will be followed with lots of touring.”
-Rebekah Lowe
Tags: Buzz Bin, Entertainment, Frankie Muniz, George Mason University