Two punk rock bands played Syracuse University this weekend, breaking the recent trend of hip-hop acts headlining the university’s music events.

Midtown and Bouncing Souls played the Homecoming Concert in Goldstein Auditorium to a crowd of about 600 students Sunday night.

‘I don’t play concerts for any reason except that I enjoy playing music and I enjoy looking at people enjoying the music,’ said Tyler Rann, the bassist of Midtown. ‘We are very into the crowd – I will get up in your face and scream at you, I will jump out in the crowd and scream every word in your face until you have a good time.’

Although the crowd filled only half the space available in Goldstein, the University Union Concerts staff, which planned the event, was not deterred.

‘I think people were looking for a good time, and that’s what we at UU planned for and gave them,’ said Sherlen Archibald, co-executive director for UU Concerts and a junior psychology and music industry major. ‘If we had more time to promote, we would have been able to bring in more people. But being that it was this way, it was very good.’

The concert rocked for about three hours. The Loved Ones, a surprise punk rock opener that Bouncing Souls brought with them, played a lot of energetic material and got the crowd excited. Then Midtown, a small band from New Jersey, came on and the crowd jumped around more and began yelling their approval.

Midtown played a lot of songs from its new album ‘Forget What You Know,’ along with some of its older material. By the end of its set, the crowd had already formed a couple mosh pits and was ready for the Souls to arrive. The crowd repeated the choruses of the Souls song ‘Ole’ – the title and the only word of the song – until the musicians took the stage. Bouncing Souls also played material from its past and present. The members also took requests from the audience and played almost everything that was asked of them.

The two main bands had recently returned from the Rock Against Bush Tour, and their political influence was apparent through both their sets.

‘There was a huge anti-Bush feeling given out,’ said Shalini Patel, a freshman advertising design major. ‘But it was a good show. It was very different from the usual hip-hop scene.’

Pete Steinkept, the guitarist for Bouncing Souls, said that they push the political issues because it’s important for students to vote, and more importantly, to know that their voting makes a difference.

‘As a kid, it never seemed to do anything with me, you know, politics,’ Steinkept said, ‘but as I got older I really see how it directly relates to me.’

At the end of the show, most people seemed to walk away very happy.

‘This concert brought in people in who were into different types of music, and the students who saw it said it was a great show,’ Archibald said. ‘The specific genre of music hadn’t been there in a while and we thought it was a good chance to bring it now.’

Due to trouble signing bands to play for the show, Bouncing Souls and Midtown were only signed a week before the concert. This meant that publicity had to be thrown into overdrive this past week.

‘We did total guerilla promotion,’ said Sarah Usher, public relations director for UU Concerts and a senior public relations major. ‘We worked very hard to get the word out. The best type of promotion is word of mouth, so we did everything we could to get people talking.’

The UU Concert staff used multiple tactics to get people to learn about the show. They spread fliers around every major building and in every residence hall. They held ticket give-aways on the Quad after students planted their foreheads on a bat and spun around 10 times, then raced with a giant rubber ball. Some also drove around in a golf cart and screamed information through a megaphone.

But it was all worth it, Usher said.

‘I saw a lot of more people talking about it,’ Usher said, ‘compared to the beginning of the week where no one was talking about it.’

Published on October 11, 2004 at 12:00 pm