The Facts: N.C. State’s Homecoming committee chair, Adam Compton, announced Monday that the CollegeHumor live tour will headline Pack Howl during Homecoming week this year. East Carolina University brought Dashboard Confessional and Valencia to play at its Homecoming concert Thursday.
Our Opinion: Students shouldn’t expect a household name like Dashboard Confessional for Pack Howl, but a comedy tour seems like a poor choice.
Students at East Carolina University were treated to a blast of live music Thursday night as Dashboard Confessional and Valencia performed at their Homecoming concert. The event which was not free, cost $10 to see Dashboard, a nationally known act, and Valencia, an up-incoming alternative band whose most recent album reached number six on the Billboard Heatseekers list.
Adam Compton, N.C. State’s Homecoming committee chair, announced Monday on WKNC’s “Eye on the Triangle” that the CollegeHumor live tour will headline Pack Howl — an event that has been held at the University for the last five or six years according to Compton.
The event has become a tradition and provided the students with some notable acts, including N.E.R.D., Common, Ludacris and the Avett Brothers.
The comedy tour is a dramatic change to previous years, which have been dominated by musical headliners.
Students shouldn’t necessarily expect a big name act like Dashboard Confessional, especially during these dire financial times. In fact, ECU’s Student Activities Board spent approximately $75,000 to bring the two big-name acts to its concert — NCSU’s headline budget was a comparatively paltry $15,000. But a comedy tour is a rather dramatic course reversal and seems to be an odd choice.
Compton said the committee’s goal was to bring as many students to the event as possible. He said musical acts, especially local or independent bands, could “exclude a group of students.”
Compton believes this year will allow the Homecoming committee to experiment with the comedy idea.
The College Humor live tour was an option that kept the Homecoming committee within its budget and allowed it to make an offer to a second act, the Chapel Hill band, Roman Candle.
The Homecoming committee has made a very sincere effort to stay under budget and bring an act to campus that all students will enjoy in the limited time it had to procure an act.
Despite the committee’s intentions, Pack Howl has become a tradition at the University; to abruptly alter the format seems rash. Local or alternative music may only appeal to certain sects of campus, but the Homecoming committee has effectively brought acts to the campus in the past that successfully accommodated many students. It seems to have settled this year.
The budget is tight, the economy appalling, but Pack Howl has established a musical tradition and following on campus, to alter it now seems inappropriate.
