Needless to say, thing
have been pretty crazy these last few weeks. Not only are we in the middle of
final exams, but SAB had our biggest event of the entire school year last
Saturday. Rockstock is the annual spring concert, and it is one of the most
highly-anticipated events of the RU academic year. This year, we were
especially excited for the concert because we found a band that countless
students had requested—Jack’s Mannequin. Each fall, after our Fall Concert, SAB
sends out a survey to the entire student body to see what types of musical acts
they want to see in the spring. I have read the survey results for the last three
years, and not once had so many people listed the same band as they did this year with Jack's. We were so eager
to see how it would turn out, considering how in demand this particular band
was.
(SAB with Andrew McMahon. He is kind of hard to pick out because he also wore yellow, but he is just right of the center.)
It could not have gone
any better. There were no major incidents, and we received tremendous feedback.
I was so happy that we were able to make so many other people happy. It is a
tough job finding a band that everybody likes, but SAB did a fantastic job this
year picking an artist that really appealed to a majority of the student
population. I was also very excited for the opening band, Antennas Up. I’ve
been friends with the band for a few years now (we saw them at one of our SAB conferences
and they even played a smaller show at RU a few years ago), so I was really
pumped to bring them back to campus and put them in front of a bigger audience. Of
my four years here, I had a personal hand in bringing three of my favorite
smaller, local bands to play at our big RU concerts (Treaty of Paris, Ha Ha
Tonka, and Antennas Up). The sense of pride I felt about how well the concert
went was amplified by the fact that I felt like I have really left my mark when it comes to
connecting people with the music I love.
(Me and my friend Abby with Kyle, the lead singer of Antennas Up.)
One of the best parts
about working the SAB concerts is getting to meet the band. Let me tell you,
Andrew McMahon, lead singer of Jack’s Mannequin, could not have been any nicer.
He signed multiple items (t-shirts, CDs, DVDs, etc.) for all of us workers, and
was really personable and outgoing. Unfortunately, you sometimes
deal with artists who are not very friendly. Luckily, we had a great experience
with this show. Andrew has another band called Something Corporate, and I have
been a huge fan of their music for years. He graciously signed my Something
Corporate memorabilia during the meet and greet. He even stayed around after
the show to sign things for a bunch of the students. We really had a great
experience this year, and I am so pleased and proud. I have had the joy and the
pleasure to work all eight SAB concerts of my undergrad career, and I am so
happy that we ended on such a high note. I’m definitely going to miss it.
(After Andrew signed my favorite Something Corporate CD. I gave one to my sister, who is a big fan as well.)
