 "Photo: MCT")
Concert Board yesterday confirmed that the power-pop band OK Go will headline this year's Spring Fling taking place May 1, with Canadian rapper Drake taking second billing.
Boston rapper Sam Adams, whose EP "Boston's Boy" (2010) recently debuted at the top of the iTunes hip-hop albums chart, will be the opening act.
"The main acts will be Drake, and then OK Go will be the headliner … well, they're sort of the same level," Concert Board co-chair Theodore Finn, a freshman, said. "We're going to have a really ‘up-and-coming' [act] as the opener — we're still finishing up negotiations on that."
The members of Concert Board settled on these two headlining acts and booked them through an extensive process.
"We have weekly meetings where we ask our members to do a big brainstorm, throw out tons of names and vote to see which suggestions are the most popular," Concert Board Co-chair Nicole Goodwin, a sophomore, said.
Goodwin explained that many factors go into the eventual decision.
"Basically, what we're looking for is something that will appeal to the Tufts community, something that will fit in our budget and use our money as best we can to get a big act, and then it's dependent on who's available for the day," Goodwin said.
The organizers expressed their excitement about the upcoming concert.
"We decided that this [combination of acts] was going to be the best use of Tufts' money, and that it was going to appeal to the widest audience," Finn said. "Obviously, we hope it'll be a great Spring Fling, and we think it'll be a really good show."
"Yeah, I think people will be really excited about it," Goodwin said.
OK Go formed as a four-piece band in Chicago in 1998 and first gained major exposure in 2000 on a tour sponsored and recorded by the radio show "This American Life."
The band has since released three full-length studio albums: "OK Go" (2002), "Oh No" (2005) and "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky" (2010). The group has increased its fan base and won critical acclaim through the use of viral marketing to promote its music videos on YouTube.com.
Canadian entertainer Drake began his career as an actor, playing the part of Jimmy Brooks on the television series "Degrassi: The Next Generation" from the show's inception in 2001 until 2009.
Drake began releasing mixtapes in 2006, drawing the attention of rap mogul Lil Wayne in 2008, with whom he has since toured. His full-length debut album, "Thank Me Later," is slated for release in late May on Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment record label.
Finn explained that Concert Board works through an intermediary booking agent, Pretty Polly Productions, based out of Natick, Mass.
"It takes time to communicate back and forth, because we talk to the booking agent, and then he talks to the artists' agents," Finn said. "It's a long process, but it's the best way to do it, because we get better deals on the artists."
Both Finn and Goodwin declined to comment on the compensation paid to each artist.
Goodwin and Finn also confirmed that a Tufts student band would play two sets on a side stage at Spring Fling, filling the set-change time between Sam Adams and Drake, and between Drake and OK Go.
"This won't be like years past when a student band has played [at the beginning] and nobody's there to hear them," Finn said. "There will have already been a professional act on stage."
A panel of four student and faculty judges will select this student band at Concert Board's Battle of the Bands, scheduled for Saturday, April 17 at 3 p.m. in Hotung Café.
Bands interested in competing must have at least half of their band members be current Tufts students and must drop a demo CD of at most three songs into a box at the Mayer Campus Center's Information Booth before 8 p.m. on April 7.
Concert Board members will then select their favorite five groups to play 20-minute sets at Battle of the Bands, during which they will be allowed to perform only one cover song.
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