One day after the celebrated holiday commonly known as 4/20, it made too much sense for Manchester College to start its Peace Week, but it did anyway. Within the depths of Cordier Auditorium, a large number of students, staff and faculty members came out to witness the band known as The Otho Winger Experience.

  
The show started with a popular jam made famous by James Brown, “I Feel Good,” which was sung with electricity by graphic designer and webmaster Dan Chudzynski.

  
And in true Peace Week fashion, the band was accompanied by a group of back-up dancers, made up by the MC Chamber Singers, who dressed in 60s style garments and other clothing resembling an era of love, weed and promiscuity.

  
Some might say that our society has lost those values we held during the times of peace rallies and sit-ins, but we’ve without a doubt held fast to some of the more recreational aspects of that love-drenched point in time.

  
That had no bearing on the concert itself but just served as a lead into the mind-expanding experience that was The Otho Winger Experience.

 
  At no point during the show did anyone feel the urge to sway to the rhythm of the music with cigarette lighters or cell phones with their arms outstretched high in the air, which was disappointing to say the least.

   
Instead, they opted for handfuls of green, fluorescent glow sticks that they waved around in circular patterns that would’ve sent any ecstasy addict into a tailspin.

  
Most impressive were the musically inclined professors who headlined the event. Biology professor David Hicks, normally thought of as the quiet botanist with the wicked sense of humor, treated the crowd to a low-toned, raspy rendition of “My Baby Wrote Me a Letter” performed originally by The Box Tops.

  
Later, he would serenade the crowd by playing mandolin to the tune made popular while Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper rode their choppers down the desert road in the film “Easy Rider, “The Weight” by The Wallflowers.

  
Alongside Hicks for that song were the other front men, which included history professor Mark Angelos on acoustic guitar and physics professor Greg Clark on electric guitar.  

  
It was quite the crowd pleaser.

  
Angelos began the event by doing his best Louis Armstrong impression, blaring out tunes on his trumpet. Later, he teamed up on acoustic guitar with Clark who wailed on electric guitar for the song “All Along the Watchtower,” which was penned by Bob Dylan and famously performed by none other than the incomparable Jimi Hendrix.

The solo alone is something to marvel at and students should take note of the difficulty of the song, which was hammered out flawlessly by Clark.

   
Music professor Debra Lynn sang Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” which was requested by the multitude in the audience. It became a crowd favorite two years ago when she belted out the soul singer’s lyrics at the last concert headlined by The Otho Winger Experience.

  
The entire performance marked a special sort of occasion for the faculty members of Manchester College. It gave them the chance to offer the students something a little bit off the beaten path.

  
“It’s a chance for you to see that they have lives and aren’t just one-sided eggheads,” said Chudzynski during the show.

   
All of the students and faculty involved should be commended for their skills and dedication because they flat-out impressed a great number of people. They’re still eggheads, but the one-sided rumor has been put to bed.

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