Upstate New York-based jam band moe. will headline this year's Spring Fling on April 27. Reggae founding fathers Toots and the Maytals and rappers Mob Deep will also take the stage behind Gifford House for the yearly music fest. A yet-to-be-determined Tufts band, the winner of next Saturday's Battle of the Bands, will open the show.
Though Concert Board traditionally pays about $65,000 for the three bands, this year will see a considerably smaller expenditure on performers. Moe. will receive $20,000, and Mob Deep and Toots have signed to play for $17,500 and $16,500, respectively.
"We didn't spend that much," Board co-chair Aaron Wright said yesterday. "We were actually hoping to spend more," he said, alluding to musicians that may have demanded more money, but would have been more popular among the Tufts community. Though Concert Board attempted to sign a number of other bands, they either cost too much or were already scheduled to perform on that date elsewhere.
"It's the best we could do with the constraints we had," Wright said, "I'm excited about moe."
Bad luck and, according to Wright, poor communication between the Student Activities office, the Univeristy's agent Howie Cusack, and Concert Board may have hindered the signing process and kept Fling from featuring bigger bands. A large conference of rap artists featuring over a hundred performers is scheduled in California for the same weekend, drastically limiting Tufts' hip-hop options.
Though students were initially excited that a band had been announced, many are disillusioned by the band's lack of notoriety. "I guess we got Clinton for the Fares lecture so it would soften the blow of our commencement speakers and Spring Fling band," junior Aaron Chiu said.
Senior Angel Vail said she thought with all the prominent people visiting campus this year, Spring Fling could make a sacrifice, provided that the band is good. "The only problem with the other people that visited was that not every student had the opportunity to see them speak or perform."
Others were more optimistic, saying that they are tired of the same old names. "I think it's a good thing to be exposed to new music," sophomore Cristina Fort said.
As usual, this year's lineup offers a variety of musical styles and traditions. Originally calling themselves Five Guys Named Moe, the headliners formed in 1990 at the University of Buffalo. Over the last decade, the band has established a recognizable sound despite ever-rotating personnel. Improvisation and psychedelic-tinged guitar riffs mark the quintet's popular live shows.
Toots and the Maytals first incarnation was born in 1966 by three Kingston, Jamaica natives including leader Frederick "Toots" Hibbert. Over the last three decades the band developed their gospel and soul-based tunes while riding the breaking wave of Jamaica's musical transformation and the birth of reggae music. The original artists disbanded in the early '80s, but in the '90s Hibbert recreated a new band, also named Toots and the Maytals, in the spirit of the old band. It has toured the world ever since.
Mobb Deep released its first album Juvenile Hell in 1993 when its primary performers, Havoc and Prodigy, were only teenagers. Since then, it has striven to transcend the easily applied "gangsta rap" label while still acknowledging a wide array of influences. Widely acclaimed, Mobb Deep's style unites tight lyrics and melancholy tones.
