Senior Eric Schwartz cannot wait for April 27 to come. One of his favorite bands—Collective Soul—will headline this year’s Last Day of Classes.
“They’re one of the bands that I’ve known and heard every day on the radio since I was in middle school,” Schwartz said.
Popular in the 1990s, Collective Soul is best known for the hit song “Shine.”
Weekend Excursion will open for Collective Soul. The Raleigh-based rock band, which performed at Duke two years ago, will play for the first hour.
But some students question whether the bands stack up to those playing at other colleges’ last day concerts.
At Cornell University, rappers Snoop Dogg and The Game will headline Slope Day 2005 in May.
“Snoop Dogg’s a persona,” Steve Blake, president of Cornell's Slope Day programming board, told The Chronicle. “[Snoop] has a cultural presence in the entertainment industry.... So far, we’ve received positive response from our students about his coming here to perform.”
At Yale University, students will get the chance to watch The Shins, O.A.R. and beatboxer Rahzel—a member of the group The Roots— at the school’s annual Spring Fling April 26. The Shins’ music was recently featured on the soundtrack to the film Garden State.
The Shins, Ben Folds and Howie Day are just a few of the acts that will perform at Brown University during its Spring Weekend festivities.
Duke senior Matt Greenfield, chair of the LDOC committee, said Collective Soul and Weekend Excursion are as good—if not better—choices for LDOC as the acts other schools selected.
“We considered The Shins, but they had very little campus appeal according to our survey,” Greenfield said. “Snoop Dogg was not considered because of the flop that Kanye West was last year, and Ben Folds came a few months ago to Page. For Howie Day, we considered them very highly for the opener, but they were unavailable.”
Greenfield pointed to a lack of funding as a reason why it is hard to bring in a bigger-name band for LDOC.
“We wanted the Beatnuts as our opening band this year and they cost between $12,000 and $15,000. They were interested, but we couldn't afford them,” Greenfield said.
Senior Anthony Vitarelli, president of Campus Council, which sponsors LDOC events with Duke University Union, said other schools may have a larger concert budget and thus more money to spend on bigger-name bands.
“We always compare ourselves with our peers and if we want to exceed them, the LDOC event needs additional funding,” he said.
Last month, Duke Student Government failed to pass a resolution calling for a permanent augmenting and codifying of the annual LDOC budget with a $7.50 per semester increase in the student activities fee. The resolution passed via referendum in the senate and class officer elections April 16.
Currently, $50,000 of the LDOC budget comes from Campus Council every year. Under the new system, $90,000 of additional revenue will be put toward bringing in musical acts.
Though Greenfield declined to reveal the exact budget for this year’s LDOC bands, he said Collective Soul and Weekend Excursion would cost between $29,000 and $42,000. In comparison, Cornell has $150,000 to splurge on bands. Yale’s budget for Talent for Musical Acts this year is just under $70,000, while Brown’s Concert Agency’s budget is $105,000.
But Greenfield noted that even if the LDOC committee has more money to cover its operating expenses and brings in a bigger-name band, it will still be hard to please everybody on campus.
Some of Duke’s musicians remain divided as to whether Yale, Cornell and Brown procured bands that students at Duke would rather listen hear perform.
“Compared to the other acts that these top schools got, Duke’s draw is terrible,” said junior Zachary Kilgore of The Pulsar Triyo.
Senior Yaw Nyame of the band Uncle Jemima disagreed.
“If anyone can truly perform an outdoor show that will get students involved, I think it would be Collective Soul,” Nyame said. “As for Weekend Excursion, I saw them once and they seemed to get the attention of the people they were performing for. I’m not a huge fan, but they’ll definitely be capable of doing their job as an opener.”
Preferences aside, sophomore Alex Cornell of the band Cody said he would come to LDOC no matter which musical act Duke presented.
“For me, I’m always up for live music,” Cornell explained. “So I’m certainly going to attend since I never would miss a free concert.”
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