Let me preface this article by saying that music is my passion and a concert to me is hands down one of the most intimate experiences one will have with any type of entertainment. A concert is the Mecca of musical explorations. I find myself being completely engulfed in how bands choose to carry themselves on stage. A concert is where the music meets the crowd and where the crowd meets the band. I have been to so many concerts. You name a genre; I’ve been to a concert of its type. I would estimate that I have seen roughly 100 artists live. That being said, when I heard that the Canadian rock band, The Trews, would be throwing a free concert for all students, I was absolutely ecstatic. When I arrived to the concert, I was very curious to see how many students would turn out and what their reaction to the music would be.
To begin with, J.J. Paolino opened the show with a 6-song acoustic set. The set went along and it seemed to get the blood moving for most of the students present and by most, I meant the total of 40-50 students that were there and that’s being generous.
Now, this is where I get bitter. I walked into the gym expecting a great turn out. Student Productions was supposed to be promoting the event so I figured there would be an ample amount of kids. To my surprise, I found what seemed to be a vacant gym with very few students scattered about. Immediately my heart sunk. “Maybe more kids will pile in, it’s early.” Wrong. If anything, people left. So as J.J. Paolino made his exit from his time on stage, a member of Student Productions took the stage to talk to the audience while The Trews got ready for their gig. The student went on to explain that SP was bringing the concert to us tonight and that in the spring, they would be throwing the first major concert on campus. Now that might sound nice and dandy, but get this. The Trews have released two albums, had number one singles, and shared the stage with some of the biggest names in rock music like: The Rolling Stones. Think what you may, but saying that, “Student Productions will be throwing the first major concert in spring for students” before you introduce a band like The Trews is like a person shouting The “F” bomb right in the middle of prayer at church. When the student chose to say that, it hit me like a dagger in the chest (I know from Wexperience of course). I can only imagine what it sounded like to the band members. I cringe at the thought.
Obviously the concert was not hitting the right buttons for me so far that night, but I stuck around out of sheer respect for a band playing a concert with a tiny crowd hoping to fill up the gym a little more than it already was. As the Trews took the stage I was just anticipating their faces as they looked at the desolate and wide open gym. But they took the stage none the less and absolutely blew me away. Even with their obvious disappointment with the size of the crowd, they hammered on and played a whopping 13-song set. The band was jumping, dancing, singing with so much passion that it felt great to be one of very few students watching. Many times during the show I did feel a little uncomfortable though, when the lead singer, showed his obvious disappointment of the crowd by saying things like, “Is there a hurricane tonight?”, “We can pretend it’s a big rock show, just make some noise and dim the lights.” Even though it made me uneasy, I was behind him 100% and would have said the same things. The concert was the first that I have ever attended where people moved away from the stage instead of moving towards it.
What this all boils down to is my ultimate disappointment with the promotion of the event and the lack of school spirit in the events the school throws. I will be the first to admit, that yes, the switch from the Vaughn courtyard to the Martinez gym due to weather probably killed a lot of the student atmosphere. I talked to numerous students that did not even know the event was being held. Now I’d like to think that I know music enough to tell you how a concert went, so I hope you take my word when I say that The Trews put on an absolutely incredible show. Whether it was the identical sound to their records, their stage presence, the perfection of their musical instruments, or the incredible character they showed by sticking around to talk after the show to students.
I’m not sure, but I can vouch for the students that were there and say yes, the first major concert on campus in my book was an astonishing live show that didn’t produce any student body. It really is a shame that many people did not make it out to the show, whether they knew about it or not. So next time there is a concert, for my sake, to keep me sane, please grab your buddies, some beverages and come out and enjoy the feeling that I know live music gives you.
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