The Pepperdine Student Programming Board made a big announcement to the student body last Thursday: Mat Kearney and the Gym Class Heroes will be performing at the upcoming Spring concert. The announcement generated a positive response from Seaver students, and those who attended the reveal party in the Sandbar seemed satisfied with the decision. Lauren Pitre, a Pepperdine sophomore, said “the Board did a great job, they couldn’t have picked better artists.”
Amelia Huckins, the concert planner for the student board, said they “chose Mat Kearney and the Gym Class Heroes after thinking a lot about who the students would like to see as well as taking their budget and calendar into consideration.”
Huckins said planning a large concert like this takes a lot of time, and that she started the search for artists in the first month of school. The concert planning process is a long one, though, and the concert was not finalized until very recently.
They chose the artists because they would satisfy different musical tastes. Mat Kearney, who has had four top-20 hits in his career, is a folk-rock singer; his latest hit is “Hey Mama.” The Gym Class Heroes, whose members originally met in a ninth grade gym class, are in the hip-hop genre. Famous Gym Class Heroes singles include “Stereo Hearts,” “The Queen and I” and “Cookie Jar.”
The Student Programming Board is able to put on the concert this year because of the student activity fee increase, unlike the last few years when the lack of funds meant the spring concert was either small or nonexistent. The concert will take place on Saturday, March 31 in Alumni Park. The tickets are on sale now for $10 in the HAWC with a student ID.