This year’s Spring Concert was one to remember. It included performances by DJ Tommy Carlucci, T-Pain and Third Eye Blind. Here’s a recap of how the evening went:

The line to wait for doors to open was already pretty long when I arrived at 6:30 p.m. By the time doors opened an hour later, the line stretched all the way around the parking lot of North Campus. There was also a line on the other side that people without tickets could stand, hoping to get in a few vacant spots on the floor. The stage was set up in the back of the gym, with standing room in front all the way to the other wall. The barricade was about six feet from the stage so people in front really got up close to the show.

DJ Tommy Carlucci – I don’t really know why there was a DJ at the concert with two other artists, but probably to keep people hyped in-between sets. DJ Tommy Carlucci played two 20-minute sets before each act while the stage was being set. He did a decent job of keeping people excited, but more because of his song choice than his actual DJ skills. UNH student Kaitlyn White described it as, “When it was good it was good, but sometimes it was really awkward with no hype from the crowd.” He was also off to the side, so the people that couldn’t see him wouldn’t know the difference if it was live or a recording.

T-Pain – T-Pain was the first act up out of the two, and he played for about an hour and a half. Now coming to this concert, I had no prior knowledge of T-Pain’s original work, other than the countless songs he’s done with other artists. However, a bunch of other students I talked to and myself, T-Pain was surprisingly impressive and entertaining. Some people say contrary to Third Eye Blind, T-Pain’s performance allowed for people who aren’t huge fans to still enjoy the music and the show. What I really liked most about T-Pain’s show is that is was so well thought out, put together, and organized. The show revolved around T-Pain, his hype guy and a female dancer bringing out the fun and energy in all of the songs. What was also really great was the fact that he played a lot of songs that he has been featured on that were and still are really popular.

Third Eye Blind – The closing act on the concert was Third Eye Blind, the San Francisco based band that have sprung many hits in the past 15 years. They opened with one of them, “Never Let You Go” and played a few other songs after. Their big announcements were that they just finished their new album and are set to go on tour this summer. They played a few new songs that were being played live for one of the first times, and I thought they were really great. The most surprising thing about the set was when the whole band just walked off the stage – except the drummer, who went on a solo for at least five minutes. He actually incorporated a sampler with different sounds and vocal effects (voiced by Jay-Z) to accompany his solo, which was awesome. Third Eye Blind finished off with “Semi–Charmed Life” and “Jumper,” which were obvious crowd favorites. Unfortunately, Third Eye Blind’s set was a bit short which could be for a few reasons. Some say it could be because T-Pain played for longer than he was supposed to, and it also could be from the fact that a lot of the crowd didn’t seem into the performance, other than for their few hit songs.
Spring Concert 2015 was definitely a great first Spring Weekend concert experience for me, and I hope that everyone else had as much fun as I did.

“I liked that SCOPE really tried to get artists that different types of people would enjoy rather than catering to one specific crowd,” said White.

SCOPE really put on a great weekend and I can’t wait to see what next year will be like.