Waking up early on a Saturday morning for a Ticketmaster pre-sale is never fun; what's worse is the bundle of extra charges you have to pay if you're lucky enough to snag a few seats. And then there's the cost of the trip downtown and back. Well, quit your whining - plenty of college students in the area plan fun (and cheap) shows every week.
Take College junior Stephen Potter, for instance. He works as Pi Lambda Phi's social chair and puts on a show at the frat's house at 3914 Spruce Street about once every two weeks. Pilam has a rich tradition of rock concerts, with shows dating back 30 years. Countless bands, from Hüsker Dü to Of Montreal have played in small, intimate settings at the house, with usually about 100 people in attendance.
These events are self-funded by Pilam, which is one reason Potter books mostly smaller, up-and-coming bands.
"It's the thing I like about booking small shows - the creation of community around the shows," Potter said. "I never go to large venues. If you go to the TLA, you might as well go to a movie. There's no intimacy."
If you want to stay ahead of the new music curve, Pilam might be the place to look. Not long after the influential tastemakers at Pitchfork gave a glowing review to gloomy shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers, the band played a Halloween show on campus.
"That's what I want Pilam to be," he said. "You don't know what you're going to get, but it's going to be good and you're going to come away from it saying, 'That was fun and that was more than just a fun party. It was a good show and I heard something new and exciting.'"
If you're looking for Penn-funded concerts, the main game in town is the Social Planning and Events Committee, more commonly referred to as SPEC. SPEC's concert committee - run by Preston Hershorn, Amanda Santana and Allison Rapoport - puts on one major concert each semester, along with smaller shows throughout the year. They receive their funding from the university, and while it helps them woo larger acts, their hefty budget can also work to their detriment.
"Booking agents know we have a budget so they charge us much more than if we were an independent promoter," says Hershorn.
Budget problems aside, they have been able to book acts such as Rufus Wainwright, Howie Day and Ben Kweller, who performed at Irvine Auditorium last October. But SPEC's biggest event of the year is always during Spring Fling.
Last year's concert featured Ben Folds and Third Eye Blind, both of whom impressed the committee.
"[They] were amazing - just the right amount of nostalgia," says Santana, "And you didn't have to be into music to appreciate them."
As Hershorn puts it, "At Spring Fling, everyone is energetic and excited to be out and party with their friends, so they want happy upbeat music they can dance to."
Students can expect an announcement of the bands playing this Fling sometime after Spring Break. The only clue they're willing to divulge is, "We're trying to keep the momentum going from the last two shows. We're going to try to mix it up a little bit, bring in some new genres and keep the energy high."
The concert experiences offered by SPEC and Pilam are quite different from one another, but Swarthmore senior Madalyn Baldanzi is able to create a unique blend of the two. She sets up about twelve indie rock shows every year at the school's Olde Club, a frat house from the 1920s that is now used as a performance space. The shows are free, but only open to Swarthmore students.
Although Baldanzi had no experience booking concerts before being hired, she's put on a string of successful shows, with many bringing in about 150 people. It's tough to keep up with the latest buzz bands, but Baldanzi is on top of her game.
"I made Pitchfork my home page, so I would be forced to look at it everyday," she said, "And I don't know how people would have booked bands before MySpace."
Recently caught at the last minute without an opening act for mellow rockers Illinois, she consulted the band's list of MySpace friends and rounded out the show that afternoon.
Swarthmore only boasts 1400 students, so her budget isn't as large as SPEC's, but the school provides enough money to book acts like Dan Deacon, Blitzen Trapper and Girl Talk.
"I wanted to bring bands that people could come out to and dance around," said Baldanzi; "It should be a place to come party and enjoy the shows rather than just standing around and listening"
