MS MR to headline next month's Cage Rage Concert

Concert Board announced yesterday that dance-pop duo MS MR will headline the fifth-annual Cage Rage Concert at Cousens Gymnasium’s Carzo Cage on Nov. 15. Indie-pop group Gentlemen Hall and electronic band STRFKR will play as the concert's openers.

The lineup features performers who have been popular recently, according to Concert Board Co-Chair Kathryn Gibb. This year, MS MR was a headliner at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, STRFKR performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Gentlemen Hall opened at Boston Calling Music Festival.

Tickets, which will be available on Tufts Tickets starting Nov. 3, cost $10 for Tufts students with a valid ID. Students can buy up to two guest tickets for $15, according to Concert Board Co-Chair Matthew Marber. The concert will open its doors at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15, with the first act scheduled for 7:30 p.m., the second act for 8 p.m. and the headliner for 9 p.m.

Concert Board coordinates the event in collaboration with the Office for Campus Life (OCL) to cover the logistics of the event, Marber, a junior, explained.

The initial list of potential performers is first sent to Concert Board through a production company agent. The list features artists that are above, below and just around their budget, according to Marber. Gibb, a junior, said they also considered the number of followers each artist had on Spotify to ensure an even balance of popularity.

"From there, we see what we can afford and how that would balance out with openers," Marber said. "And then we send in our first bid based on what we think is the appropriate fit, while still making sure that we do have enough space in our budget for quality openers, so it's not just one overwhelming headliner and two unknown starting acts."

This year, Concert Board also released a playlist on Spotify to build buzz around potential performers, according to Marber. The playlist began with 38 possible artists, and Concert Board removed four to six artists per day to eventually reveal the lineup.

"The Spotify representative on campus, [senior] Kurt Oleson, reached out to us, and he said he would like to work with us, so we decided to not only use Spotify as a way of publicizing who the headliner was, but in addition to that we are going to be working with them for a publicity push event on Nov. 10," Gibb said.

Aside from announcing the official performers for the concert, the Spotify playlist also entered Concert Board into a concert sweepstakes competition called Spotify Soundclash in which colleges across the country created playlists of 15 songs or more, according to Gibb. The school with the most followers on their playlist won a cash prize of $5000.

"We didn’t win, however, we got the most followers of the week, which was pretty impressive," she said, noting that Tufts only had its playlist up for one week.

Marber agreed that the competition helped bring attention to Tufts, given that it was competing with many larger schools.

"We made a really good name for ourselves," he said.

Gibb explained that  the publicity about Cage Rage has so far been limited to painting the cannon -- which Concert Board did last night -- social media, flyering and videos. However, the publicity event on Nov. 10 with Spotify will also bring more attention to the concert.

The publicity event will take place on the lower patio of the Mayer Campus Center -- or inside if it rains -- and will feature the music of the performing artists and free Spotify gear and cider, Gibb explained. This year Concert Board will also award 25 free tickets to a select group of the playlist's followers in an effort to advertise the concert. Gibb also expressed excitement about the lineup of this year's concert.

"I do like all of them," she said. "I saw MS MR this year at Bonnaroo. I have very close friends that have seen STRFKR and they really enjoyed them as well. We heard good things about Gentlemen Hall this year too at Boston Calling."