Apollo Sunshine rocks for small crowd at Canopy Club

"Say what you will about the University, but one thing is always true: you don't need to leave campus for a good time. From $38 Kanye West concerts to free serenades from the ukulele guy at Espresso Royale, there is bound to be something for everyone. And you just might find yourself a good middle ground at The Canopy Club in Urbana, where you can enjoy intimate concerts with up-and-coming rock bands for under $10. Last Tuesday night, the club was about as crowded as could be expected. The bands headlined, the Sun and Apollo Sunshine, were the sort that only those of us who dare venture outside the mainstream music world would know of. And with just 20 people at most decorating the front room of the club, this fact was made obvious. Yet, the concertgoers present were not all from the University. Meaghan Gass and Mike Martello came from Illinois State University specifically to see Apollo Sunshine. "It's not really that far," Gass said, "like 45 minutes." A friend of Gass' introduced the Apples in Stereo fan to Apollo Sunshine this week, she said. Her traveling companion, however, had been keen on Apollo for a while. Martello, who described the band as "Bad Finger meets the Flaming Lips," was excited for the show. "Apollo Sunshine's a whole lot of fun," Martello said. "I saw them once before." As for the Sun, Martello said, "I've never heard of them. But they're on Capitol (Records)." And as it turned out, Gass and Martello weren't alone in coming just to see Apollo Sunshine. Colin Fitzgerald, freshman in LAS, said, "My cousin actually knows them. My cousin's a musician so I was over there talking to them. They're pretty good." Fitzgerald, who likes the band's older music and had just bought the new CD, was appreciative that Apollo Sunshine had come to the University. "That's the thing I like about a big school," he said. "You don't have to go anywhere. The events, the bands, come to you.""