Spring Jam 2010 Recap!

By Nick Rizzuto and Sarah Glorioso

Yesterday April 24^th, 2010, Drexel’s Campus Activities Board held seven hours of events, entertainment, and fun from 4 pm to 11 pm. Aiming to bring together the entire campus with events that appealed to the large variety that comprises our student body, I personally think that we can say that CAB’s Spring Jam delivered.

The day was kicked off with carnival style events like a mechanical bull, gladiator fights, and WKDU’s make-your-own-pixie stick. Let’s not forget free food at the volleyball courts and a table that served free Fuse all day. Before the real entertainment even started, Spring Jam was off to a good start.

The day started for me, personally, when I entered into the armory to see Drexel’s own D&M take the stage. Although I believe I technically was there for the band’s first ever live performance in the fall, this was one of the first times that the band had ever played as an electric four-piece. They opened with “The Ballad of Peter and Wendy” from their new First EP and had me impressed with the progress they had made right out off the bat.

For me, this was an excellent start to a day’s worth of great entertainment and so I sought out the D in D&M, Danny Fornasa, who is also the lead singer and main songwriter in the bluesy rock outfit, about the day’s events. Danny expressed to me how happy he was that the band’s several weeks of rigorously playing smaller venues had paid off first in being a runner-up for Drexel’s Battle of the Bands and then having such a great turn out for their set last night. After all, the band can now say that they opened for the likes of Kevin Rudolf and N.E.R.D. One of the highlights of the band’s set was their first single “Philadelphia”, which you can hear on their Myspace, and will soon be available on iTunes.

Next were Drexel’s Best Dance Crew winners Jhalak who impressed all with their army-themed mash up that began with Chris Brown’s “Transform Ya” yet somehow incorporated a modern spin on Indian traditional dance throughout. They were followed by Drexel Idol finalists Teri McMahon, who sang Incubus’ “Dig”, and Karyn Peeples, who sang Duffy’s hit “Mercy”.

Karyn was later announced the winner of the event, although she had told me before that she has tried out in previous years and has never made it to this point of the competition. Interestingly enough, Karyn has also tried out for competitions like American Idol and America’s Got Talent in the past and also had not had much luck, although that might seem unbelievable after the fantastic performance she put on yesterday.

Teri McMahon on the other hand, who is a freshman, has been singing all of her life but had never done anything competitive such as Drexel Idol. She says she is proud of getting this far in the competition and although she may try out again in other years, feels as though she may retire after one go around. She did raise the interesting point though that there were not many competitors for Drexel Idol when you take into consideration how large our student body is. She says she would love to see a much larger amount of participants in the future to give Drexel Idol more of a competitive feel and bring it to a wider array of students.

By this point, it was getting closer and closer to the men of the hour – Kevin Rudolf and N.E.R.D. Before that time though, I was personally caught off guard by the genre bending styling of Drexel Battle of the Bands winner Wyld Lyfe who rocked the stage around seven o’clock. Armed with 3 MCs, a live drummer, guitar and bass player, and an entire brass section, Wyld Lyfe was probably one of the most unexpected highlights of the day for me. Anyone who was in attendance at that point will attest to this amazing performance that culminated in a teeth-played guitar solo to make the audience go crazy. Hendrix himself would be proud of this infatuating display of dental strength and guitar prowess that made me want to check out the band much more.

Finally was what all this anticipation was building up for – Kevin Rudolf. And boy were we disappointed Drexel. I guess we should have expected it but Kevin Rudolf was hardly a performer; he just stood there in his sunglasses playing guitar. There was no interaction with the audience or even acknowledgment that we were watching him. With people continuously screaming “Where’s Lil’ Wayne?” and “Get off the stage!” I found myself yelling for him just to play “Let it Rock” again even though I am not a fan of this song or Kevin Rudolf as an artist.

What was amazing though is that although Kevin has had 3 Billboard Top 40 hits in the last year and a half, the crowd at the Armory didn’t reach its maximum for the night until it was time for N.E.R.D. The rap group has never really had all that much success in their career, but Pharrell Williams is essentially a household name to Drexel students for his work with pretty much every relevant artist under the sun, his producer group the Neptunes, singing “Snooooo-oop” on “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, and because of that one summer where pretty much every song on the radio featured Pharrell. Pharrell was the first T-Pain, if you will, yet he never had to resort to any auto-tune but just gained our respect from his chill attitude and general badass persona.(1)

Previously mentioned bad ass persona.

It was for these reasons that the students in the audience didn’t mind waiting for the band to take the stage for about 45 minutes. I remember lights flashing and we cheered, hoping to see Pharrell Williams dance around like he’s known for. Eventually, the guitarist came out played the National Anthem on a glowing guitar, and the crowd went crazy. The dual drums were also an amazing touch to the performance. N.E.R.D. engaged the crowd in the music, having us sing along, jump up and down, and even mosh pit at the end. Playing fan favorites like “Rockstar”, “Everyone Nose”, and “She Wants to Move” their performance couldn’t have been any better. Also, watching people crowd surf in our armory was pretty hilarious, especially in a sea of red glow sticks. N.E.R.D. was an unexpected headliner for this year’s Spring Jam, but delievered more than anyone could have hoped.  Reflecting on the night, I can’t wait to see what CAB has in store for us next year.