"I'm not wasting my welcome week by not getting into the concert!" This sentiment, said by Shirin Karimi, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, was shared by all the students in line waiting to see B.o.B. in the Tavern Friday night. Jarrod MacNeil, the program adviser for Student Activities, could not estimate how many people were waiting in line, or how many people got in to see the concert. By the time Karimi was interviewed, she was in the back of the line.
There were over 1,600 people who confirmed to attend the event on Facebook (a problem, since the Tavern only holds 600 people). The line started at the Battelle-Tompkins bulding and extended all the way to Kogod. Greg Gerlach and Sebastien Lundby-Thomas had been waiting in line since 5 p.m. “Magic comes up, and it goes down, “ said Gerlach, a criminal justice and economics double major in the School of Public Affairs and CAS, in between sips of Monster energy drink.
“I want B.o.B. to help us get Kid Cudi,” joked Lundby-Thomas, a sophomore in SPA.
“It wasn’t as overcrowded as I had expected, based on the Facebook number,” Cornell said. “It turned out being quite perfect with numbers.”
Setting up the event was no small effort according to Stephén Parsons, a sophomore studying audio technology in CAS. Parsons helped supervise the 15 student volunteers who helped to set up the concert for about four hours.
“I came to [AU] looking to get involved — and this was a great opportunity,” said volunteer Kayley Freshman-Caffrey, a freshman in SPA and Kogod.
Not only were the students excited for the concert, but so were the performers. TJ Chapman, part of the HamSquad that accompanies B.o.B., was pumped to play and see Playboy Tre — also of HamSquad and the opening act — and Yelawolf also perform.
“Yelawolf is part of the family — we’ve been friends for years," Chapman said. "He adds a lot to the show. He’s the shit! He’s going to be real big someday.”
B. Rich, manning the mixer (and the last member of HamSquad), helped Playboy Tre open the show. Within seconds of taking the stage, the audience kept a short silence, only to explode in dynamic excitement. “The Drunk Loner,” as he’s also known, kept close distance from the crowd.
“This is a beautiful and energetic crowd,” Tre said, before he began the first song of his set. Students on the far end of the crowd flanked the stage in order to get a better look at him.
Tre got very sentimental after his first song. “[N]o matter what you go through, life is motherfucking beautful,” he said, creating a segue into his next song. Tre made a promise to the crowd — that if they followed him on Twitter and made a comment, he’d follow them back. (His username is @playboytre in case anyone missed it at the concert.)
Yelawolf (real name Michael Wayne Atha) took the stage next, but not without demanding the audience make more noise. He was certainly a sight to behold in a red hoodie, cut-off baggie pants, Nike shoes with blue laces on the left, red laces on the right and a backpack on stage. Yelawolf brought a lot of energy to the crowd, firing off fast-paced lyrics not unlike a Gatling gun onto the audience.
However, the crowd was eager for B.o.B., the main attraction. The moment he took the stage, the crowd alternated between utter jubilation and revered silence. B.o.B. wowed the audience with his musical polymath ability: he sings, raps and plays guitar. AU student Mack Herlyn got on stage, to the exuberant joy of the crowd.
“The concert was sick, Playboy Tre was actually very solid and B.o.B brought the house down," Gerlach wrote in an e-mail. "My boy Mack Herlyn got up on stage with B.o.B. for 'Magic,' best concert at AU I've ever been to.”
thescene@theeagleonline.com
Staff writer Meg Fowler contributed to this report.
