The spring concert has been under heavy criticism since its announcement in early April. Many students have been very critical of the Programming Activities Council (PAC), and their artist line up. 

As I went into this concert, I kept in mind all these criticisms, but tried to draw my own conclusions while attending. The first thing I noticed when walking up to the blocked off area of Grand Mesa field was the lack of students in line. I arrived at 4:45 p.m. and was underwhelmed by the lack of students standing in line. 

At the concert last year, there was already a line wrapping around Wubben Hall by 5:00 p.m. This was not the case for this concert. There were about a handful of people in line by this time. Quite honestly, this observation made me sad for PAC. 

Within the hour the crowd slowly began to grow, though it was nowhere near the size of Little Yachty last year. About a half hour before the concert started, I interviewed some students from the crowd. Most of them were there for Drake Bell, only a couple had any interest in Juicy J’s performance. 

Drake Bell entered the stage later than his initial start time, but the slight tardiness was an advantage for him. As Drake walked onto the stage the crowd blew up and everyone was screaming. 

To be honest, my initial thought of Drake was “I cannot believe how short this guy is!” Growing up watching him on Nickelodeon, he was always a giant to me, but now not so much. 

His first song was fast paced. It energized the crowd, especially those who grew up watching Drake & Josh on Nickelodeon. Though I have heard many negative comments about his performances, I quite enjoyed his music. 

Although his music was enjoyable, his stage presence was not what it could be. He barely moved around the stage – I will give him the fact he was playing guitar. He stayed in his one spot and barely moved. There were the occasional body movements with the strumming of his guitar, but besides that there was nothing. If it weren’t for the fact that I was taking photos for this article, I would’ve lost interest quickly. 

This next part probably bugged me the most about his performance. On stage, in front of everyone mind you, he took out his phone to check some notification. HE STOPPED PLAYING AND CHECKED HIS PHONE. As a performer myself, this is detestable. I don’t care if it is a phone call, if you are on stage performing, you perform. After your last song, or whatever else you are doing, you then can check your phone off stage. 

He then preceded to make comment of “making sure he was within his contract.” In no circumstance should anyone ever mention this to their audience. Never. 

After he got off stage there was a lull between performers. After about fifteen minutes, a comedian appeared, though it was not who we were promised. I do not know what happened to RIP Michaels, but he was not the next performer. Instead, we had Jacob Williams from Wild n’ Out. I have never heard of him nor the show, but I will say the whole situation was all around terrible.

Now, before moving on I will say, he was not the best performer, and his jokes were at least an attempt at being funny; however, the way students acted towards him truly horrified me more than his performance.

Yes, his jokes were awful, and yes, he was not RIP Michaels, but that does not give students the right to throw objects at him. When I was taking photos, I witnessed an orange flying onto the stage, targeted at him. This was so disgraceful on our part as a student body that it makes me sick. 

After Jacob was rudely “booed” off stage, Drake Bell was asked to sing again, and I will tell you this, he did not seem happy about it. His body language showed the annoyance he had. I do have to say, I can understand why he would be, but his attitude after the second performance would be best described as being truly peeved.

Even when meeting him, he said nothing to me nor my colleague, and later on in the night while taking photos of Juicy J, I accidentally backed up into Drake and he just looked me up and down, glaring. 

I do not blame him entirely for having an attitude. I believe if the student body hadn’t been so disrespectful to Jacob Williams, Drake’s attitude may have been different. However, that was the least problematic part of the night.

Juicy J’s stage presence was amazing, I will say that. It was bigger than any of the other performers. The lights were an assault on the eyes and shifted between purples, pinks and blues. The patterns they made were amazing and even were projected onto the library. The thudding of the speakers shook the ground around the stage – standing on them was quite an experience. 

However, that is the only thing I can say positively about his performance. Now, I am not that much into rap to begin with, but when every song is about getting high and sex it becomes a real turn off. 

My two favorite parts of his performance were him encouraging the audience to get high while he performs – which a majority did – and him encouraging them to start moshing. 

I have never smelt so much weed in my life. I stayed on the right side of the stage to take photos, and let me tell you, there was a cloud of smoke coming from the audience behind me. So much for being a dry campus. 

And lastly, my second favorite part, watching a girl fall, and start to get trampled on during the mosh. The stage crew ran off stage to try and take her out but couldn’t get to her. 

Is this really how we want to be known to artists that visit our campus? That we are so disrespectful that we throw food at a performer who isn’t that good? Or how about throwing a blunt and a lighter at a performer saying that they, “wish they could join the crowd and get high”? Is this how we want to be remembered?

I personally think this concert was a joke and an excuse for people to act like animals. I hope next year PAC will listen to the student body and bring artists that would promote something good on campus, not this circus act. 

This concert was a misrepresentation of Colorado Mesa University and should not occur again. Our campus is a great campus, and I know this is not how the student body typically acts. It honestly saddens me to see an artist so annoyed with his audience. I hope next year these problems and immature behaviors cease.