Idolator

Damn. Why didn't I go to Brown?

I am suddenly not envious of my friend who goes to Dartmouth.

This actually makes a weird sort of sense. I went to the college in the late '90s, and the most common Spring Fling bands in town seemed to be The Violent Femmes and They Might Be Giants. Maybe this is some weird Spring Fling ritual -- paying homage to a prior generation's bands.

On the other hand, at least the Femmes and TMBG were actually good once. I truly despise Third-Eye Blind.

The Yale lineup is especially peculiar. I like the idea of Sister Hazel opening up for T.I. It's one of those things that will never ever happen again. Ever.

I don't know if it was the official "spring concert," but last night at NYU we had The Thermals and The Hold Steady. It was an amazing show, though plagued by stage divers.

@Poubelle: Agreed. Mission of Burma? Wow.

Why did my alma mater (Brandeis) wait until AFTER I graduated before they snagged Wilco?

Texas once booked Soul Asylum to open up for Ludacris. This was in 2001, years past their prime.

God, those lineups look relatively stellar to me.

One of the worst days of my life: Realizing the idea of "college rock" was propped up by a half dozen mute dorks and bossy lesbians at the campus radio station.

Who the fuck wants to visit Hanover, anyway? Not like the choices are usually stellar.

But Third Eye Blind did win a vote, topping Hot Hot Heat (my personal choice).

Oh, and we got the Roots in the Fall. So, we have that going for us as well.

@kaate: at the pf chang's-delayed t.i. show a few weeks back, his opening act was clap your hands say yeah.

Third eye blind? Really? Ouch.

When I was at University of Florida, we had really good free concerts:

Tribe, and Black Eyed Peas (when BEP's first album just came out, before they got super sucky)

The Roots

Outkast and Ludacris (right when Stankonia came out)- this had to be the best ever. The city was crazier than when we won the National Championship(s)*

* Notice that plural (yeah!)

What's funny is that my best friend played in two separate bands that siggidy-supported Das EFX in 1996 at Wesleyan and 2002 at Connecticut College. I guess they're still miggidy-making the kiggidy-college rounds for the spriggidy-spring concerts.

3EB? That's still better than my freshman year at Harvard when we had The Verve Pipe.

Last year, didn't Yale have Gunther? I remember my then-boyfriend was really excited about it.

I have a comment to make about Penn and the student population having its head up their collective asses, but I'm too tired to make it.

@Mike P.: I think it's more about band accessibility. When I was a concert promoter, we used Violent Femmes as a filler band for at a few shows every year just because they were easy to book.

I went to a third-tier Catholic college--our spring break concert would be a flute recital, maybe.

In grad school I'm surrounded by people who are refreshingly music-nerdy, though; people can spot references to everything from Foreigner to the Childballads in my work. And last week, no lie, one of my classes had a long discussion about ODB, Mystikal, Bjork, and discourses of whiteness.

Ooh, I can't wait for the retracted lawsuits against T.I. at Cornell and Yale!

WTF?!?! When I was at Princeton we had P-Funk and James Brown. Then again we also had the Wallflowers. And most kids thought George Clinton was someone who ran for president or something. So nevermind.

But that Columbia lineup? That is, frankly, to use some late-90s college lingo, the shit. I'm kind of secretly all about Blackalicious right now.

I love random Spring Fling lineups. My favorite from my college years: Allan Holdsworth opening for the Ramones. With some crappy new wave band in the middle who literally got booed off the stage - one of the only times I've ever seen that happen!

our end-of-the-year show my freshman year: pavement. it was also my birthday. even god street wine being on the bill could not dim the awesomeness of that day.

(the next year, maceo parker headlined, and a bunch of bands affiliated with the aware label served as also-rans. yeah, vertical horizon!)

My freshman year spring concert at Lake Superior State University(small college in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan) was Unkle Cracker. I worked for the campus radio station, and he initially balked at doing an interview because he couldn't smoke in the station. My friend and I went on the air and made fun of him for a half hour, and surprise surprise, he came down to talk. He was very small. So, don't complain about 3EB.

My alma mater, Syracuse, has a pretty kickin' "Block Party" show this year: TV on the Radio, Lupe Fiasco and Ciara.

Something for every demographic!

I went to Rice and one time we had Bowling For Soup play. They were pretty...umm...I should have gone to Brown or, at least, the Issac Brock School of Design.

Freshman year we had Better than Ezra / Naughty by Nature. I transferred. Subsequent years at my new school we got Walkmen / Modest Mouse and Ben Kweller / Wilco.

Having attended the T.I.-and-Sister Hazel school, I must admit that this bizarre lineup is an improvement over what we regularly got back in the day. I seem to recall we booked Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers twice during my four years on campus. T.I. is a massive improvement, and even Sister Hazel (snore) is somewhat less embarrassing than the sort of fare we got back then.

Right after I left, Yale's booking prowess improved considerably. They somehow got No Doubt in 1996, at the height of their early fame.

I have to agree that Brown's lineup puts all the other Ivies' to shame.

I covered the spring show at UC Santa Barbara one year, when NOFX was the headliner. But the real stars of the day were on the "second stage" (a bunch of 3-foot risers on the opposite end of the stadium).

A hardcore/death metal band called Much, with lead vocals by Dustin Diamond ... yes, "Screech" from Saved By The Bell.

The only thing more awesome than hearing Screech bellow unintelligible lyrics in his best angry-gorilla voice was when the crowd turned on them. A full water bottle to the head took Screech down, leaving his co-lead vocalist simultaneously singing and knocking down flying bottles while Screech was carried off the stage and loaded into a waiting ambulance.

I doubt that too many college students actually care to hear Third Eye Blind. I'm assuming that considering budgeting limitations, the schools could not get a bigger, more popular group to play.

wow... Cornell though, match made in heaven.

this year's spring concert on my campus is the my chemical romance/muse show. last year we had wilco and the year before, the roots. discussion?

@Snowbrigadier:
Last year Yale had Ben Folds and Ludacris. I was there. It was insane.

During my three years at the University of Texas at Austin, we have hosted three very different headliners...

THE GOOD: The Roots
THE BAD: Ryan Cabrera
THE UGLY: Little Richard

One of the benefits of being on the wrong side of 40 is this: my freshman year show? R.E.M. on the Preconstruction Tour. With the Neats opening.

It was the Lords of the New Church the next year, which wasn't nearly as good.

This very spring, Rice University had Okkervil River. Big ups yourself, Rice.

As ridiculous as it seems, as a college student I find it off-setting how some of these schools that have Ivy League funds and world renowned research facilities can't do the research to find any bands with even an ounce of indy cred. Here at Florida State we had Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura, Of Montreal, Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club, Diplo, Ratatat, The Decemberists, Tilly and the Wall, Mr. Lif and like 10 more great bands that can't come to mind just this year alone. I guess it shows where our priorities are. When it comes down to it, I'll take my cheap, shitty education and cool bands over some ritzy, expensive Ivy League education and 3rd Eye Blind.

@iDrew:

I should have remember that. I heard him sing snatches of. "Bitches ain't shit" every day for like two weeks

@Mike P.: totally saw both of these bands in college, yup! v. femmes seemed like they would rather be anywhere else than playing to a bunch of indifferent kids on a quad.