On September 10th, 2015 in a small university coffee joint affectionately known as Jitters, the acoustic rock band The Apollo Affair took the stage by storm in an electrifying hour-long show.

The Apollo Affair is an unsigned acoustic rock duo based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Formed in Kenosha in the winter of 2013, The Apollo Affair is self-described as “an acoustic experience that redefines the expectations associated with the ‘singer-songwriter’ genre.” The band is comprised of Chris Shanafelt (guitar) and frontwoman Megan Mehl (vocals). The Apollo Affair currently has 2 EP releases: a sampler (“3P”) and a 6-track EP (“Fever”). They also have a dark, heavy full-length album on the way.

(QUICK SIDE NOTE: The Apollo Affair are currently booking and performing shows around the Midwest. They are also in the midst of putting together material for a new full-length acoustic album, which they hope to release in Spring of 2016. You can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SPOTIFY.)

Jitters is student run coffee lounge located on the first floor of the Wells East tower at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. They serve an assortment of hot, cold, and frozen beverages, with their most popular beverage being the famed “Oreogasm” (a frozen drink inspired by milk’s favorite cookie, the Oreo). Jitters is typically open Mondays through Saturdays between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m., though these hours depend on the number of volunteers. For more information on Jitters, you can check out their facebook page (“Jitters Coffeehouse”), or stop by and see some live music.

The show started at 8pm, and unfortunately, there were not many people at Jitters. The only people who were at Jitters at the time were four of us from the Whitewater Music Co-op (information below), my roommate Maddie, and a few others. Though they started off with an incredible amount of energy. Every time they would talk to the audience, they were extremely personable and down to earth. Megan (vocals) is so adorably awkward and relatable, but becomes an electric performer once she starts to sing.

The first song they did was a rocking acoustic tune. Right off the bat they had incredible energy. Megan’s powerful vocals gave the whole venue an electrifying energy. Even during this first song, more people began to file into the small coffee joint to see who was delivering such a dynamite show. The second song was a slower, mellow, easy-listening tune. Chris’ calm guitar playing combined with Megan’s emotional vocals gave an almost vulnerable feel that absolutely captivated the audience. A cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” followed suit. It began slowly, almost hauntingly, but quickly picked up into a fast-paced rock tune that blew everyone away.

Every song they played only made the audience fall more in love with their sound and performance. By the time they got to their seventh song, “Into the Night,” the audience was undoubtedly captivated by them. “Into the Night” shows off Megan’s high vocal range. The melody they chose adds an incredible emphasis to the lyrics (which are gorgeous, by the way). Their stage performance is killer in this song. A fast paced, quasi-southern rock sounding tune followed. What is so interesting about this song is how it goes into a half-time feel and then back out. Megan’s dynamic control and rage support is absolutely phenomenal for the genre. As the song carries on, the two only get more into the song and the performance. Once the song draws to a close, you can tell she’s getting slightly fatigued, but it only adds to the performance of the song. This song ends with a beautiful a capPella melody.

Following that crowd-pleasing tune was a sexy and seductive cover of “I Put a Spell on You.” Chris’ ability to tell a story through the guitar makes the performance so much more enjoyable. He’s always tuned into Megan to see how she’s performing and he emulates it. Megan’s low range in this song is full and powerful. After the gorgeous cover (which was definitely a crowd favorite) was a song called “Pretty Little Things.” This song was absolutely my favorite song. The song began with a dark guitar melody and haunting vocals. Megan is classically trained in opera, and it shows immensely in this song. She shows a level of beautiful soprano range support that I have yet to see by someone in this genre. Her ability to sing with such clear tone after singing nine rock tunes is phenomenal. Everything in her voice manages to stay raw while still sounding clean and clear. They wrapped up the show with two more gorgeous songs, which showed off Chris’ guitar ability. The last song they played began with a gorgeous picked guitar intro and ended with a loud applause from the appreciative audience.

After the show a few of us walked over to the UWW radio station (91.7 The Edge) to do an on-air interview with Chris and Megan.

Question: Tell us about your most recent EP.

Megan: The most recent EP that we have is called Fever. We released it this past November. It’s six tracks. It features a lot of the earlier stuff that we were working on, so it is still mainly true to our current sound, but it’s more of I guess an experimentation so to speak of the different kinds of styles that we like that we perform.

Chris: I kind of view it (Fever) as a bit of a transition album. In the beginning we were kind of doing that typical singer/songwriter acoustic-type sound, [and] a lot of that was bleeding into our music, [but then] we started to get into the blues and rock influence in there and getting a heavier sound, and now with our upcoming album, which we’re about to hopefully hit the studio and get going on, is more of that driving rock sound but still under the acoustic medium.

Question: What is your weirdest pre-show ritual?

Chris: For me it’s praying to God that I don’t break any guitar strings. This is probably the first show in six shows that I haven’t broken a string. I tend to break one during "Nashville" every time.

Megan: Putting as much black make-up on my face as I can… and listening to "Living La Vida Loca." [Which, might I add, we played over the speakers before the show started.]

The Whitewater Music Co-op is a student-run campus organization that aims to encourage local musicians and artists. The goal of the organization is to create a community of musicians that support each other. For more information on how you can be involved in the Co-op, you can follow them on twitter (@UWW_Music_Co_Op) or email them at UWWmusic5@gmail.com

Don't forget to support your local music scene, and as always, stay rad.

Carly Marie