Thursday night at Cholmondeley's, Students for Environmental Action (SEA) hosted a coffee house to help support Brandeis' wetlands. Several musicians were featured, including a semester debut from all-female a cappella group In Sync, and the night ended with a great set by student band, Swallow the Leader.The evening started off with an acoustic set of six songs by Aaron Cela '04. His meaningful lyrics coupled with his guitar playing, let everyone see that while he is playing his own pieces, he is very passionate about them.

Some of his covers included Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" and Modest Mouse's "Trailer Trash." He finished a great set to a not so great audience; too bad, they missed some good stuff.

Brandeis Improvisational Jazz Ensemble (BIJE) followed. The concoction of instruments and random spurts of expression made it seem as if the audience were involved in the movie "Waking Life." There was no set theme, tempo or tone, yet it seemed like hearing poetry without words. It was so random that it worked.

After BIJE finished, Emma Palma '05 read poetry about saving plants. The coffeehouse also finally began to fill up by this time, so a drum circle was started using anything and everything one could find to play a bit of percussion.

Finally, the audience was treated to In Sync. With a set of five songs, two of them fronted by new members of the group, the crowd got into a calmer groove. After the rhythmic feeling of BIJE and the drum circle, the laid-back fun girl sound of the oldest all-female a cappella group at Brandeis was a nice switch. Some of the songs performed were "Big Yellow Taxi," by Joni Mitchell, sung by new member Sarah Singer '06, "Torn," by Natalie Imbruglia, sung by alumnus Miranda Moody '02 and "Monkey," by Counting Crows, by new member, Mira Elias '06.

A fun little skit in the middle of the performance by the new members made the night one filled with laughter as they all joked about where they were from by using stereotypical songs of the areas. The great voices of all the girls put together with the beautiful songs they sang made their semester debut a successful one.

The evening ended with Swallow the Leader. Their 45-minute set was comprised of covers and originals, including songs by the Strokes, Eve 6 and the Refreshments. Their originals included "Epitaph," "Peace of Mind" and "Flower Girl." The group ended with their own song, "Carry Me Away." In the words of lead singer Mark Hopkins '03, "We are here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and we're all out of bubble gum." Kick ass they most certainly did, and they helped bring an entertaining coffeehouse by SEA, comprised of very diverse performers, to an exciting close.