By: Kevin Thomas ~Staff Writer~

For the second Friday in a row, first-years Donovan Moore and Patrick O’Rourke played a twohour set of acoustic jams just outside Gallagher Student Center (GSC) before a small crowd of students and passersby intrigued by the live music.

Moore and O’Rourke showed up in the small plaza just outside GSC around 6:10 p.m. on Friday and began to set up. Moore plays the guitar and sings, while O’Rourke adds a background beat with his cajon, a small wooden percussion box that he plays by beating on it either with his hands or his sticks and brushes.

The duo, currently unnamed, plays a mixture of original songs and covers, ranging from Eminem’s “Slim Shady” to John Mayer’s “Waiting On the World to Change” to the ever-classic college song, “Wonderwall” by Oasis.

“I really think that my music, like the stuff that I write, sounds just like me,” Moore said. “It’s a combination of all my influences, but it sounds like me.”

O’Rourke and Moore are roommates who have been playing together since they first moved in.

“I picked him for my roommate because he was a drummer,” Moore said. “He turned out to be a really awesome guy, but I was just looking for someone who would be down to play music any time, anywhere, and we just kinda went out and did it.”

“It was crazy,” O’Rourke said. “He was playing his originals, so there was no way I could’ve ever heard them, but we were still getting all the hits together. It sounded like we had been playing together for a while. (We have) really just great musical chemistry, a great fusion of musical creativity and talent.”

Their musical chemistry is something that’s noticeable to the crowd as well.

“It’s not just listening to them,” first-year Megan Eckerman said. “It’s also watching them. The way they interact together is kind of entertaining. It’s the whole experience (that I enjoy).”

The crowd is not yet a large one—it can range anywhere from just three people sitting in the black metal chairs to a group of 15 or 20 all gathered together to listen to the two play and interact.

“It was excellent,” Brianna Ledsome, a friend of the duo, said. “It’s a really nice atmosphere even though there’s not a ton of people, but everyone kind of sings along and everything.”

The duo plans on doing a smaller third set outside GSC this upcoming Friday, but they would also like to expand their horizons by getting gigs around Cincinnati or elsewhere on campus.

However, other than getting more varied opportunites to play, the group has no definite plans for the future.