The Fling, a rock-focused student cover band founded in spring 2024, has its roots in a late night Denny’s visit, according to keyboard player and vocalist Darby Waller ’25. At 4 a.m., Waller and guitarist and vocalist Greg Hirsch ’25 — then classmates in MUS 22, “Creative Music Theory II” — found themselves discussing the possibility of a new band over eggs and pancakes.
That conversation soon led to The Fling.
“I think there are so many people at Dartmouth who are really talented musicians and really want to play,” Waller said. “It’s just a matter of bringing them together. Through word of mouth, we ended up finding a group of people who wanted to play music but were also willing to put in the work.”
The Fling features Waller on keyboard and vocals, Hirsch on guitar and vocals, Sam Beutner ’25 on drums, Emily Brown ’25 on lead vocals, Ethan McNab ’25 on guitar and Nick Rutigliano ’25 on bass — filling in for Lydia Jin ’26, who is currently abroad. The band performs covers of rock, blues, country and pop songs, primarily for fraternity social events.
“We started with classic rock, and I still think it’s our primary genre,” Hirsch said. “But as we’ve grown, we’ve definitely done more funk and country, and this has been kind of a result of us seeing where each other’s strengths are.”
He explained that Waller has a “beautiful voice at a certain register” that is “best suited for country songs.” Beutner, meanwhile, is “able to keep funk drums” — enabling the band to perform “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, among other staples, Hirsch said.
Hirsch added that the band has even experimented with rap, including songs by artists like Mac Miller and Nelly. Brown attributed the group’s musical evolution to their time spent playing as a unit.
“As a band, I think that we have all seen each other get so much stronger and be able to play much better together,” Brown said. “So we’ve been able to learn new songs and change up our dynamics and solos a lot. Everything has gotten so much smoother as we’ve spent more time as a group.”
According to Waller, the group has developed a more “consistent” and “tighter” sound since its founding, which has helped members to “arrange the songs better.” With these improvements, the group has also grown more confident in its song selections, he added.
“I think we used to play crowd-pleasing songs, and now we’re trying to play songs that we really want to play that we just couldn’t have done in the beginning — whether it be because we weren’t good enough to play them or we weren’t sure if people necessarily wanted to hear them,” he said. “…Now, we’ll sprinkle in songs that we’re not sure that people necessarily love, but that we really want to play.”
Among those tunes, the group has played “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals, as well as “Althea” by The Grateful Dead and “Can’t You See” by the Marshall Tucker Band.
The Fling has boasted a strong campus presence since the start of the school year, a reflection of the quality time its members have invested in their growth. The band has played six shows so far this term and meets for twice-weekly practices, which can last anywhere between 90 minutes and three hours. While the band’s schedule is “not easy,” Hirsch said his bandmates have been “great about stamina.”
“I felt like Darby and I were going to run everyone else into the ground [at first], and we were scared of making the others suffer burnout, but none of them have,” he said. “So I’m appreciative of my bandmates, and I’m excited to keep playing shows.”
Beutner added that everyone’s busy schedules makes scheduling practices difficult — often engendering the need to “improvise” and “adapt” live on stage despite their setlist being arranged in advance.
Hirsch said he ultimately appreciates Dartmouth’s band culture, noting that the College has a different musical scene than other schools such as the University of Virginia or Stanford University. He said that he is a “fan first” and musician second.
“I love these other bands here, and I’m excited to be one of them and also to be playing for people,” Hirsch said. “It’s a great feeling to play for your friends out here, to actually be at these parties where people are feeling the energy of the band, and you get to feed off the crowd.”
The Fling — which recently launched an Instagram page to advertise its shows — will next play at Sawtooth Kitchen this Thursday, Nov. 7, according to Hirsch. The group also looks forward to playing at Battle of the Bands this Friday, which is hosted by Phi Delta Alpha fraternity. The winning band will perform at the fraternity’s block party this spring, Hirsch said.
“We just really want to play a lot of shows,” Brown said. “I think that this will be the most we’ve played, and definitely the best we’ve sounded. So we just want to end with a bang.”
