by Alec Williams
On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 17, the rock group American Authors performed on the Colorado Mesa University campus for a crowd of students and ticket buyers. The concert was opened by the 888, a Denver-based alternative electronic group.
The bands were chosen by CMU’s programming activities council (PAC) in an effort to accommodate some of the students’ complaints that previous music groups had been primarily rap groups.
“We had also heard that students wanted a different genre of music, since we had rap or hip-hop for the past two years,” PAC member Vanessa Nuanes said.
In previous years a band has been chosen based on an online poll through the Orgsync website from participating students. This year PAC had not begun planning the concert until finals week of the 2016 spring semester and was unable to. “However, we had gotten a lot of feedback from students about previous concerts and we took all of those ideas and thoughts into careful consideration while planning the concert for the fall,” Nuanes said.
Efforts had been made to book the band X Ambassadors, but the deal fell flat and American Authors were brought to CMU instead.
The total cost of the concert has yet to be determined but assistant director of student life Gail Howe confirmed that the university paid American Authors, $40,000, and 888, $5,000, to perform at CMU.
888 band members stepped out onto the stage situated on the Grand Mesa field around 7 p.m. to a crowd of students and members of the public.
“I don’t know if you know this, but we’re from just down the road in Denver,” Danny Stillman, the 888 lead singer, said. The band played a short set of songs before opening for the New York City based American Authors.
The sun had fully set when American Authors had begun performing for the CMU campus. Lead singer Zac Barnett donned a Colorado Mesa University tshirt modified into a tanktop.
“We actually all met each other in college,” Barnett said to a screaming crowd, “We dropped out to play music together. But, you should stay in school.”
American Authors are most notably known for their Top 20 hit, “Go Big or Go Home,” from their second album, What We Live For, as well as their hit singles “Believer” and “Best Day of My Life” from their debut album Oh, What a Life.
“Let’s go Mavericks!” Barnett said to the students on their last song of the night, and the crowd repeated the phrase back. “Long live Harambe,” Barnett said and the crowd repeated.
