By James Riswick
Staff Writer
OK, so I’m currently taking bets on how long it will take Pepperdine to cancel the March 29 Third Eye Blind concert. It only seems like a matter of time before the powers-that-be listen to “10 Days Late” or perhaps some random concert in Milwaukee when lead singer Stephen Jenkins might have said a particular “f” word.
But this is not about what could happen, it’s all about what did happen in regards to the administration’s axing of the Sum 41 concert. After successfully getting the Sum 41 tour to stop by our humble shores, Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Mark Davis gave the thumbs-up to the April 11 Alumni Park concert with a possible audience of 7,000.
Days later, however, Davis informed Student Government Association Concert Committee Chair Jimmy Hutcheson to call the booking agents and cancel the event.
If I was in Hutcheson’s shoes and had worked hard to book a big-name tour only to have it cancelled due to “inappropriate lyrics,” Davis or another Pepperdine administrator would have had to make that call. I would have washed my hands of the entire committee, and left somebody else to book future “Christian-friendly” Bebo Norman concerts.
“I’m confident that the concert committee can find another band that is a better fit for the Pepperdine community,” Davis said.
Well, I’m sure they could, but it was those types of bands that nobody has been going to. SGA might as well just pocket the money and buy some more of those Tahitian monkey butlers SGA President Ben Elliott has bragged about.
The truth, Sum 41 would have fit many in the Pepperdine community, as would other bands that are far more vulgar. Pepperdine students listen to bands like this and they listen to other artists who don’t match up arm and arm with the university’s facade. And that’s exactly the right word for it – a facade – the assumed appearance Pepperdine must put on for wealthy donors and other influential people.
It’s no coincidence that Pepperdine has been rising in the ranks of America’s top schools at the same time has been dropping some of its ultra-conservative rules and regulations that were once part of the facade. Lifting the ban on dancing and extending the curfew are the types of changes that has made Pepperdine more attractive, not physical additions like palm trees (I promise this is the last time I will mention those).
Although Third Eye Blind is quite an achievement for the SGA Concert Committee, Hutcheson was right when he said bringing big names to Pepperdine will be hard if booking agents know there’s a chance the concert will be canceled days later. Bands like Sum 41 represent the type of music all students listen to. The number of prospective Christian students who would be impressed by Pepperdine getting a real concert tour would greatly outnumber those who would be offended by it. But then again, it’s not about the students. It’s about the parents, wealthy donors and who knows whom else. So once again, I’m taking bets.
— Do you want to place a bet on how long it will take for the Third Eye Blind concert to be cancelled? E -mail James Riswick at jriz29@hotmail.com.
March 13, 2003
