Thursday, Feb. 27, the Brandeis Democrats hosted a coffeehouse at Cholmondeley's. Molly Parke '04 headed the coffeehouse while various audience members shouted from their seats that President Bush sucks and offered information about the voting poles for students in the United States. First up was Lauren Goldstein '06. Her soft, low voice rang throughout Chum's as she sang three songs a cappella. She began with Nora Jones's "Seven Years," went on to Neena Cassidy's "Doesn't Matter Anymore," and finally Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah." The passion in her voice was well appreciated by an unfortunately tiny audience.

After Goldstein left the stage, Parke got up to give us some information about students and voting in the United States, and how in the last elections, only eight percent of all college students voted. She continued to mention this statistic throughout the night.

The next act was Jonathan Sclarsic '03, a former member of the Brandeis Democrats, who had arrived late from a Democratic meeting in his hometown to officially condemn the possible war against Iraq. He played some original songs and others, finally taking requests at the end of his set. Some songs he performed included "I Ain't Marching Anymore" by Phil Ochs, "Working a Defense Plan," "Never Land (I read it in the Daily News)," "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix and "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones. He then had his requested songs of "Blackbird" by the Beatles, "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer and "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel.

Next to perform was Proscenium. The four arrangements they did showed how hard they have been working for improvement. They began with "Someone Like You" from Jekyll and Hyde, and then they did "No One is Alone" from Into the Woods, "Try to Remember" from the Fantastics and finally "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar. In between these great songs, we got a mini-medley about the Housing Lottery where they took famous songs from big musicals and changed the words to talk about the lottery. It was very cute and entertaining.

The night ended with a great performance by Starving Artists. They started their set with "Running Away" by Hoobastank, followed by Alicia Keys' "A Woman's Worth," the always amusing "Faded" by Ben Harper, "Walk On the Ocean" by Toad the Wet Sprocket, and "God Save the King of New Orleans" by Better Than Ezra. Cries for an encore brought them back up to sing "Journey."

The Brandeis Democrats' coffeehouse was once again, very successful, ending on a very upbeat and happy note and informing people about student voters across the country.