Topeka High’s American Field service, AFS, club hosted their annual fundraiser Blues Bash on April 17. Blues Bash, a concert featuring live music this year from bands Pegassi, The Phaetons, and Inches Away.

“I liked [Blues Bash], I enjoyed seeing Inches Away perform but it was also nice to go there and support the foreign exchange students,”  Molly Hatesohl, junior, said.  It was interesting to hear them speak.”

The first set night was a newly formed band called Pegassi, the only student band that chose to play Jazz music.  Consisting of four members ranging in experience, Pegassi played a mixture of original and cover songs. The band hopes to play at Blues Bash again next year.

“[Performing] was great, I had a great time, we got a lot of audience participation and it felt great being up on stage,” Reece Barton, senior, said.

The audience became more lively as soon as the Phaetons took the stage. Their strong stage presence and infectious energy added an upbeat element to the atmosphere of Blues Bash. The Phaetons played Blues classics such as Bad Case of Love by B.B. King, Hold That Snake by Ry Cooder & David Lindley. The Phaetons appealed to both their older and younger audience with not only song choice but theatrics as well. One of their most well-known stage tricks and highlight of their entire set was when the bands lead guitar player stood on Jeff Kaufman, lead singer’s, sideways slanted Bass, both continuing to play their instruments.

“[My favorite band was]probably the Phaetons, they were a little bit more professional, they dressed up for the role and they actually played Blues,” Forrest Wright, senior, said.

Inches Away closed the show playing entirely original music from their newly released EP the “Porch Sessions”. The band brought a refreshing new sound and more variety to the line up being the only group of the night to not play Blues music.

“[We chose to play all original music because] we’ve always been good at writing our own music and we wanted to be original and be ourselves,” Brian McKenzie, senior, said.