fireflies’ Final Flight

The perfect tonic for any band’s break-up is the benefit show, a one-time love fest where the cause can circumvent the intra-band politics and provide a great experience. And, at the Independent Media Center Festival on Saturday night, CU band fireflies will be reuniting
for one final show.
They’re certainly not Pink Floyd, but the same draw to perform for a cause brought fireflies back together, as well.
“I was always down for doing one more show,” member Mark Winan said. “We ended up talking to all the guys and they were [also] down.”
As a festival, the Independent Media Center show presented a particularly good opportunity.
“[The] IMC is a little different too. It’s a cool venue, it’s to raise money for the IMC, and it’s a little bit better cause than anything else we’ve had thrown at us for a last show,” he said.
With conglomerates controlling the media, the center provides a space, so it says, to allow those left under the rug to have a voice. According to its Web site, the place exists to, “foster the creation and distribution of media, art, and narratives emphasizing underrepresented voices and perspectives and promote empowerment and expression through media and arts education.”
It also perhaps fitting that fireflies are choosing this venue to re-unite. Their music operates in the space between punk and metal, two genres that have not in their purest forms garnered mainstream attention.
In practice, their sound most resembles the ’80s hardcore of Washington DC: free-association nihilism, a powerful dynamic between loud and soft and a freedom of movement between styles.
“If we’re listening to heavy stuff, that’s what we’re going to go with and same with softer, more mellow stuff,” Wiman said. The band’s writing style found resonance in that behavior, too. “The music we were around definitely influences [us]. We were always sucking in what was around us.”
Right now, according to Wiman, the band members “are doing their own things … writing our own songs.” As for if there is a chance this reunion might be the band’s last contribution to the scene, Wiman said, “I think if another show came around, maybe we’d do it, but it would have to be a good cause … and we’d have to be playing with some friends.”

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