The student band The Gentlemen's Bet will not play Spring Fling due to a disagreement with Concert Board, the band announced this weekend.
Concert Board had guaranteed The Gentlemen's Bet a slot at Spring Fling, to be held on April 25, after the band won second place in late February at the ROCKUS Battle of the Bands, an event that student radio station WMFO assisted in running. The board had turned to The Gentlemen's Bet when the hip-hop quartet FunkSoulLove, which had won the ROCKUS battle, elected not to play at Spring Fling.
The Gentlemen's Bet believes that Concert Board promised it the side stage, which would mean that it would play throughout the day at Spring Fling. But Concert Board maintains that it said only that The Gentlemen's Bet could play at Spring Fling, without specifying an act.
Instead, Concert Board had decided, The Gentlemen's Bet would have played on the main stage, as the opening band. That band typically plays around 12 p.m., before the major acts begin and before much of the Spring Fling crowd shows up.
The disagreement between Concert Board and The Gentlemen's Bet began when Concert Board Co-Chairs Rob Seiden and Alan Munkacsy, both juniors, announced at the Saturday night Battle of the Bands sponsored by Concert Board that the student band The Ride would play on the side stage at Spring Fling. The Ride obtained the side stage spot by winning the weekend contest.
"We had talked to [The Gentlemen's Bet] and said that there was always a possibility that they would play the side stage, but no promises were made," Munkacsy said.
But Andrew Lappin, a member of The Gentlemen's Bet, said that the Concert Board co-chairs had originally promised his band the side stage; the group on the side stage plays during set changes that occur periodically throughout Spring Fling.
"We kind of got our hearts set on playing the side stage," said Lappin, a senior.
The band Brennivín, the second-place finisher at Saturday's Battle of the Bands, will take over the main-stage opening act from The Gentlemen's Bet.
Lappin and Munkacsy both agree, though, that Concert Board never promised the side stage to The Gentlemen's Bet. But Lappin said the dispute arose when Concert Board prevented The Gentlemen's Bet from participating in Saturday's Battle of the Bands -- the winner of which was to get the chance to play the side stage.
"We thought that it was a little unfair that we were excluded from playing in the Tufts Battle of the Bands," Lappin said. "We asked if we could perform to stake our claim for the side stage, but [Concert Board] said no. Then we asked if we could play for fun, and they said no to that also."
Munkacsy denied banning The Gentlemen's Bet from playing in Concert Board's Battle of the Bands. Seiden did not return repeated phone calls and e-mail messages requesting comment.
But WMFO General Manager Drew Frankel said Concert Board did prohibit The Gentlemen's Bet from playing in Saturday's Battle of the Bands. Still, he said that he backed the Concert Board's decision to prevent The Gentlemen's Bet to compete over the weekend, as the band had already secured a spot for Spring Fling.
Munkacsy said that there is a significant difference in the number of concertgoers for the two acts.
"The side-stage band helps to streamline the show and make it seem less segmented," Munkacsy said. "Gentlemen's Bet would have played for about 300 people [as the opening act on the main stage]. If they had done the side stage, that would have been the full Tufts crowd. We're expecting about 4,000 people."
The Gentlemen's Bet backed out of Spring Fling altogether upon discovering that it would not be playing the side stage.
Munkacsy said Concert Board made the decision to ask The Ride to play on the side stage fairly. Both he and Seiden decided which band would obtain the side stage slot directly after The Ride won Saturday night's battle.
"Battle of the Bands was a Concert Board-sponsored event, and WMFO did their own Battle of the Bands," Munkacsy said. "From some end, because it was our event, we felt slightly more loyal to the winners of the [Concert Board-sponsored] event."
Lappin said the band was disappointed with the Concert Board's decisions.
"It seems unfair and political. Music shouldn't be political in terms of competing," Lappin said, adding that it seemed the Concert Board had chosen The Ride for the side stage because that band had won a Concert Board-sponsored event. "We felt that it was best to distance ourselves from the whole thing."
Frankel, a senior, emphasized the prestige that any student band receives by playing at Spring Fling.
"In the end, the opportunity to play at Spring Fling isn't something any Tufts band should turn down without a really good reason," Frankel told the Daily in an e-mail. "It's about playing on a big stage, with big acts, on a big day for Tufts."
The Gentlemen's Bet has been playing at Tufts for four years and has recorded two albums, Lappin said.
He added the band is serious about its future despite turning down Tufts' biggest concert of the year.
"The band is in the middle of throwing ourselves forward into a career," he said. "We're about to go on tour over the summer, and we just came off a full-length album."
The side stage, Lappin said, would have helped improve the band's popularity.
"We wanted a shot at it because we have been playing local clubs and building our fan base," he said.
Meanwhile, junior George Nagel -- a member of Brennivín, the band chosen to replace The Gentlemen's Bet as the opening act -- expressed a lot of excitement at the opportunity to play at Spring Fling.
"We were happy just having played our show at Battle of the Bands. Getting second place was icing on the cake," Nagel said. "To play Spring Fling, we're totally excited about it. It's a huge deal for us."
