Every week, Features Editor Alyssa Gautieri hits the archives and finds old Signals that relate to current College topics and top stories.
The Maine, an alternative rock band, enthusiastically welcomed students to the spring semester at the College Union Board’s Welcome Back Concert in Kendall Hall. Excited to be invited to CUB’s annual event, The Maine played popular songs including “Right Girl,” “We All Roll Along” and “Bad Behavior.” However, The Maine is only one of the many talented performers to visit the College. In 2006, Guster, an alternative rock band from Massachusetts, performed over 10 years ago on the same stage as The Maine.
Rocking Kendall Hall on Nov. 14, Guster, half of whom are from the Garden State and proud of it, played to a nearly full house. The band played the big fall show sponsored by the College Union Board (CUB) on the main stage at Kendall.
Fan favorites, including “Airport Song,” got big reactions from the crowd. “Airport Song” was accompanied by ping pong balls tossed from the crowd onto the stage, an event that happens at every Guster show.
“Come Downstairs And Say Hello,” an upbeat, percussion-filled song, was met with loud crowd approval, particularly from those in the balcony. Rosenworcel played with bare hands, accomplishing what no drumstick ever could.
It was obvious that Gardner did his homework before getting to the College. “Is it true that your mascot is a lion?” he asked the audience, mentioning that he looked up the College before getting here.
“And is it true that his name is Roscoe?” Gardner said that after reading that, he had to stop because “everything after that wouldn’t be as cool.”
He also took time between songs to share other stories with the audience, including an anecdote about the worst Guster show ever, which he said was at a prom in an urban school in Massachusetts.
After the main set, Gardner told the audience that if they clapped loud enough and for long enough, the members of the band who were from Jersey, would come out for an encore.
After the cheers, Pisapia and Gardner came out, joined soon after by the other two members of the band. The band played two encores, the first with a song about Jersey to which Gardner added a line about Roscoe, the College’s beloved mascot.
During the second encore, the band played an acoustic version of “Jesus on the Radio” at the edge of the stage.
“I had my share of doubts as to whether they could pull together an energetic show,” Jake Voytko, senior computer science major, said. “But they sounded great and their front man was hysterical.”
“I think the show was absolutely fabulous,” Katerina Gkionis, the Guster concert coordinator, said. “It was such a great feeling when the show started and everyone went crazy, and I saw everyone having such an amazing time… we made people smile.”
