Concerts preview: Concerts chair and committee look to escape indie pidgeonhole, diversify lineup

September 4th, 2009 | By Sara Lowenburg | Section: Arts

“Imagine a band’s popularity as a parabola,” Alex Schechter ’10, 2009-10 SGA concerts chair, said. “We try to get [a band] right before they hit that peak of the parabola.”
A common complaint among Grinnell students regarding concerts is that they have never heard of the bands that come to the college. But as Schechter said, “To some extent, that is what we are trying to do.”
In a year, Schechter hopes, people will be able to look at these bands as they’ve grown more popular and be able to say they saw the band at Grinnell. “Not that we are trying to be pretentious…[it’s] just the nature of the beast and the way the budget works,” he said.
In the past, Grinnell has brought in a variety of artists. Last year, “Wynton Marsalis was good,” Evan Hockett ’12 said.
This semester’s line-up embodies a wide spectrum of genres from electronic to rock to bluegrass. There are also traditional and experimental hip-hop artists, a Klezmer style group, a singer/songwriter and some jazz.
Yet despite this, “There’s a constant complaint that all we get are indie bands, which is a really… problematic way of classifying a huge amount of music that is very diverse and lumped into a very narrow genre,” Schechter said.
The committee not only works to bring in a variety of music, but also to ensure that the bands are taken care of by providing a green room with food and occasionally accommodations. By doing most of the scheduling for the semester over the summer, the committee was able to book such bands as WHY? and Wavves, as well as rapper Kool Keith as Dr. Octagon, “It’s mind blowing that we got him,” Schechter said.
Although the concert committee has worked to pull in some bigger shows, none have been booked in Harris, the biggest venue on campus.
When Sebastian Tellier played in Harris last year, the results were mixed. “We got really weird feedback from the band…it kinda felt like they were playing in a high school gymnasium,” Schechter said.
According to Schechter, Harris shows harbor a variety of other challenges as well. They are usually the bigger shows, but because so much is going on at Grinnell at one time, it can be hard to fill up the space, which can be awkward for the band.
Harris shows also require a lot of external support beyond the concert committee’s control, including the need to bring in an outside sound system. As a result, this semester’s shows have been booked in other venues, including Bob’s, Gardner, and a noon show on 10/10, the infamous all-campus party, in Herrick.
The first show of the semester is My Name is Nobody (with M. Treka) on Sep. 8. According to their Myspace, the band is based in Birmingham, UK and are influenced by such bands as The Smiths, MORRISSEY, and Joy Division.
“We’ve got a really sweet line-up for this semester,” Schechter said. Grinnell students tend to value shows as diverse and broadly influenced as they are and this semester shouldn’t let them down.
Don Garcia ’11 commented on the range and role of shows on campus. “I think [concerts] just adds to Grinnell’s personality.”

Grinnell’s concerts committee strives to bring in a wide variety of exciting shows. This year’s line-up hopes to achieve the pageant of shows like last year’s memorable performance by Fucked Up, photographed here suplexing Asa Wilder ’10.