Tufts' Concert Board hosted its annual Battle of the Bands and announced this year's Spring Fling performers at a packed Brown and Brew on Friday.
Student band Ezra Furman and the Harpoons emerged victorious from the contest and earned the opportunity to open at Spring Fling. The Harpoons will be joined by Lupe Fiasco, Spoon and this year's headliner T.I.
Born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., T.I. is a Grammy award-winning rapper, as well as a music producer and record executive. Last year's hit song "What You Know" earned him the 2007 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance.
The song came from T.I.'s hit album "King." Released in 2006, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and sold 522,000 copies in its first week, according to Billboard's Web site. He and Justin Timberlake also won a Grammy this year for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for their 2006 song "My Love."
Lupe Fiasco, born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, is a 2007 Grammy Award nominee who rose to stardom quickly last year after his freshman album "Food & Liquor" debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200.
Spoon is a four-person indie rock band from Austin, Texas. The band's latest release is "Gimme Fiction" (2005), and it has a CD coming out this summer entitled "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga."
These three performers where chosen from a long list compiled by Concert Board. Sophomore and Concert Board Co-Chair Brielle Treece said that the board carefully considers the input of its members and submits a group of possible bands to its agent, who culls from the list the available bands that best match student demand.
"We ask the members for band ideas," she said. "We usually compile a list of about 100 names and we give those names to our agent. Our agent looks into those particular people and from there on out it's kind of [based on] who is available."
Discounting the amount that the Concert Board is supposed to earn in revenue, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate allocated $104,955 for Spring Fling this year, according to the group's budget. Treece said that this was supplemented by an additional $18,000 in buffer funding, as well as leftover revenue from ticket sales to attendees from outside the Tufts community during last year's highly attended concert. She declined to comment on how much money the individual groups will receive this year to play at Tufts.
In this year's Battle of the Bands, five Tufts bands competed to join the three Spring Fling performers. Rhythm Ruckus, The House of Representatives, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, Wicked Blues and the Poptards each played approximately 20-minute sets and were evaluated by a panel of five judges.
"Every year a Tufts band opens Spring Fling, and it's a really fun tradition," Treece said. "I think it gets the Tufts community excited about Spring Fling and it gets Tufts bands involved with [it]."
During the Battle, the Concert Board gave away several items, including T-shirts and posters. Treece was pleased with the attendance and quality of the music featured.
"I think it went really well," Treece said. "I am really proud of our production assistants. They put on a really good show. It was packed."
The winning band was the indie rock group Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, which consists of Tufts juniors Ezra Furman, Jahn Sood, Job Mukkada and Adam Abrutyn.
Ezra Furman, who sings and plays the guitar for the group, was impressed by the quality of his competitors.
"I thought the other bands were going to be bad but they weren't. They were good and that was a pleasant surprise," Furman said. "It's like food you haven't tried. You don't think its going to be good."
Student reaction to the event also appeared to be positive. Freshman Andrew Mead attended the competition because he wanted to get the chance to see Tufts musicians in action.
"I came to support the bands and hear live music, which you don't get a chance to [do] much at Tufts," he said. "They are really good, but they don't get enough chances to show their talent."
Mead said he was pleased with the event and said that Tufts should offer more opportunities for student bands to display their talent.
"I think there should be more events like this," he said.
Spring Fling will be held on April 28 and is free for Tufts students.
