DEREK SEDAM
Staff Writer
After much rumor and speculation, including an April Fools Day hoax, the fate of Pepperdine’s spring concert has been laid to rest.
The Student Programming Board confirmed Wednesday there will be no concert, which usually is the main highlight of the school year and attracts the most amount of students.
“It was not until last week that it became apparent that the concert was not happening,” Concert Chair junior Alex Navarro said. “We were unable to reach a time-sensitive agreement with the artist or secure an available venue.”
The announcement comes with only two weeks left before finals. For weeks, rumors of big bands swirled around campus, and someone decided to take the rumor one step further.
Wednesday, the rock was painted and flyers were posted around campus claiming the biggest band of them all, U2, would be performing on campus this month.
It turned out to be just another classic April Fools Day joke.
With bands such as Something Corporate, Jimmy Eat World and OK Go performing the last three years, the announcement comes as a surprise to many students who expected a big name to appear in Malibu.
“I’m pretty upset,” junior Dimeil Ushana said. “Every year I look forward to the spring concert as a reward for a hard year at Pepperdine.”
Navarro shares his fellow student’s sentiments.
“As fellow students, SPB hopes for an amazing concert just as the collective student body does, yet, the negotiation process does sometimes fall through.”
Many students blame the frustrating process of obtaining a quality band on the administration’s strict conduct codes for the artists and actual concert performances.
“There is always issues with the bands and administration,” former concert committee member and senior Taylor Wilson said.
During her freshman year, the committee saw trouble signing Something Corporate over questionable song title.
“Even though that happened, we still held creative ticket sales events and the concert was a huge success both for on-campus students and the general public,” Wilson said.
Singer Matt Nathanson made it no secret about the strife when he stated during his performance he was only allowed to swear once at Pepperdine’s fall concert. Nathanson changed his usual sexual comedy routine between songs to stories about random objects.
With Navarro and the rest of the board trying to constantly obtain a Pepperdine-worthy band, students wonder what is wrong with the system that used to produce great concerts year after year.
“I think the committee is too big,” Wilson said. “It seems the larger it gets the less gets done. It happened last year and it seemed to carry over.”
Ushana agreed with Wilson’s statements.
“The concert chairs need to step up next year and put the student’s needs before theirs,” Ushana said.
Navarro stated the money left over from the vacancy this semester will be rolled over to next school year, as he and rest of the SPB will work hard to make right in the fall.
When asked whether the fall concert would be big, Navarro replied, “Most likely.”
04-03-2008
