As I wait yet another quarter to hear about upcoming shows at The Mondavi Center, Freeborn Hall or the Pavillion, I continue to question whether this job was worth it. I only wanted to be Arts Editor for free tickets, y’all!
Just kidding. My god, I’m so kidding. I love this job. Don’t fire me, Hannah. I love and wanted this job for a thousand other reasons. But back to the subject of this week’s column.
Is it just me, or am I among many who wonder “Where the eff are my concerts this year?!” I would be ignorant if I went on a whole rant on how multiple groups aren’t doing their job or how perhaps we’re not that cool of a school to host famous performers.
Because we are a cool school to host famous performers. Are you kidding me? Just last year we had Ke$ha, LMFAO, Florence + The Machine, The Shins, Bon Iver, Steve Aoki and Drake, just to name a whole bunch of impressive performances to occur on our campus. I nodded in approval as I perused ASUCD’s Entertainment Council’s website that listed all of the artists that have ever performed on our campus.
My freshman year, I remember being surprised that Snoop Dogg (now Lion) would even step foot on our campus, let alone put on a concert at Freeborn Hall. My sophomore year, my jaw remained dropped as performers’ names were released throughout the year. This year, however, I’m left waiting. Where’s my One Direction concert? Why isn’t Justin Bieber singing to me? I know he’s on tour.
And I understand that budgets are tight and Another Planet actually works with groups on campus to bring such popular performers to us, but I can’t help but be disappointed at this year’s lineup. The Mondavi Center brought David Sedaris and is bringing Yo-Yo Ma later this month and will host Morrissey and Alabama Shakes next month. Gold star. EC started a house show series and continues to host movie screenings of popular films.
I just can’t help but feel sorry for the freshman and senior class — the freshmen don’t know how many awesome concerts we can and have had, and the seniors might graduate without a legendary Ke$ha concert to remember forever. At least I have one more year of possible performances, and hopefully I’m not speaking too soon about this year. I will retract all of my statements in this column if all of a sudden a One Direction concert is announced.
I’ve even compiled a list of dream performers, based on the caliber of celebrities we are known to host. Macklemore just had a free concert at UCLA. Why can’t we have these nice things? Let’s bring back Allen Stone. He’s blowing up, and we had him when he wasn’t so famous last year. What about Grace Potter? fun.? The xx? I can see all of these names on this campus.
But I don’t want this column to be of me complaining — although that is my specialty. I know that it’s out of people’s hands sometimes and that concerts also depend on whether or not certain artists are even on tour. I’ll do my part in making things happen by continuously emailing performers’ agents until they block me.
Share your dream UC Davis concerts with ELIZABETH ORPINA at arts@theaggie.org.
