It was well worth the wait for those who stood on line, some even hours before Kendall Hall opened, to purchase their tickets to this year’s Fall Concert sponsored by the College Union Board (CUB). This past Saturday, Bleachers and Modern Baseball graced the campus of The College of New Jersey with three hours of live alternative goodness.
Modern Baseball was first at bat, with a majority of the songs played from their latest album You’re Gonna Miss It All. The band played “Your Graduation”, “Fine, Great”, “Rock Bottom”, and even dedicated their song “Apartment” to a few students in the crowd begging for them to play it, saying to the crowd “This next one is ‘Apartment’ and this song is for them.” For sophomore Rosie Driscoll seeing Modern Baseball was the equivalent of Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation meeting the President of the United States. Driscoll stayed up all night and headed over to Kendall Hall at 4:30 in the morning in order to guarantee purchasing front row tickets, saying that “Modern Baseball is me and my little sister’s favorite band, and has been since 2013 and I wanted front row.. It was definitely worth the wait.”
Last but certainly not least was the night’s headliner: Bleachers. Led by lead singer Jack Antoff, who also plays the guitar and is dating actress and writer Lena Dunham, the band brought the audience to life. The band played songs from their latest and only album title Strange Desire, making the crowd dance like no one’s watching and sway their phone lights side to side to songs like “Wild Heart” and “Rollercoaster”. When it seemed like the band would end their set without playing their hit song “I Wanna Get Better” the boys started playing the chords and everyone in the crowd began to sing along. There wasn’t one person in the room who wasn’t screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and the band surely received the crowd’s energy and retuned it by giving an immensely active performance.
The Fall Concert was appreciatively cheap, costing only $5 per ticket. Students were able to buy two tickets per student identification, and were allowed to bring friends from outside of campus to take part in the madness. Sophomore Lila Majano traveled all the way from New York University for the concert, saying that “Even though I didn’t know both bands that well, the opportunity to go to a concert for only $5 with my best friend was something I couldn’t pass up.”
CUB has not announced any more concert for this fall semester, but hopefully the organization has something up their sleeves that could match the energy provided by this Fall Concert’s bands.