It might not sound pretty, but the show will go on

Justin Pini is a self-confessed Ludacris fan. Come next Wednesday, he will finally get the chance to see his "hero" perform live at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"His rhymes are sick," the junior said. "I might pass out from excitement before I even get to my seat.... I'm ridiculously excited." The question on everyone's mind, however, is whether Cameron will prove to be the right choice of venue for what Pini hopes will be an "incredible show."

Cameron's acoustics are poor, and there are no plans to enhance its acoustics in the near future, said Joe Alleva, director of athletics. "My opinion is that Cameron is a poor venue for concerts," Alleva said. "Cameron is primarily an athletic venue."

Adjunct professor of physics and acoustics expert Dewey Lawson, however, is more optimistic. "What I know of Cameron's history as a musical venue tends to make me optimistic about trying it again," he said.

Before Cameron's last acoustical changes in the late 1980s, Lawson said, the stadium was highly regarded as a venue among the technical staffs that toured with rock groups. Once inside, it was relatively easy to achieve a uniform high sound level without the level being dangerously high anywhere in the audience.

But it was not acoustics that killed the Cameron concert, he said. "My understanding is that Cameron stopped being a frequent music venue largely because it didn't have enough seats to sell compared to other options in the area," he said.

Lawson said that although he was recently at Cameron this past spring for a basketball game, he has not attended a musical performance there or evaluated the place for potential musical use since the renovations in the 1980s.

The arrival of Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris, known for such hits as "What's Your Fantasy" and "Act a Fool," marks the first major concert at Cameron in almost a decade. Ludacris' management declined to comment on the stadium's acoustics.

Some of Cameron's more recent renovations include the installation of a new floor after the 1996-1997 basketball season and the addition of air conditioning in time for the 2002-2003 season. Past concerts in Cameron have included the Doobie Brothers, Grateful Dead, Santana and Bob Dylan. The total capacity for the event will be about 4,500.

"I know it's not the Metropolitan Opera house," said senior Dylan Ashbrook, chair of the Major Attractions committee of the Duke University Union, which is bringing Ludacris. "But it's the venue we have for concerts of this size."

Ticket sales have exceeded the committee's expectations, Ashbrook said. This week also kicked off the sale of about 2,000 tickets for off-campus groups, including students at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University and St. Augustine.

Freshman Laura Syn said she thinks students would probably not worry too much about the acoustics--the atmosphere is far more important. "As long as the crowd is happening and as long as there is moshing involved, it'll be loads of fun," she said.

Pini agreed. "I don't think anyone there will be thinking about the acoustics with the beats blaring and Ludacris going off," he said.