Less than a year ago, Chad Urmston was performing before a crowd of 110,000 fans along the Charles River at the Hatch Shell.
Last Friday, Kappa Sigma brought Urmston – formerly of the seminal rock trio Dispatch – back to his native Boston, only this time the venue of choice was afterHOURS.
“I like the intimacy of this a lot,” he said of performing on the college circuit. “Some of the shows toward the end of Dispatch were so hectic that it would just get to a size that sort of becomes faceless. It’s not really better or worse, it’s just a different animal.”
Urmston’s latest project, State Radio, served as the headliner for the 10th show of the fraternity’s Spring Concert Series, which has provided two shows a week since early March.
Kappa Sigma Public Relations Chair John Guilfoil.approached afterHOURS manager Jackie Indrisano about Kappa Sigma getting involved in the concert lineup at the on-campus nightclub.
Indrisano, the manager and talent buyer for the campus nightclub, said she saw potential for the series to benefit campus life as a whole.
Guilfoil said the proof is in the numbers when it comes to the program’s popularity.
“Attendance has been great. It’s a lot higher than in previous years and even in the fall,” he said. “We’ve been able to bring a lot more students here and they’re staying for the entire time.”
The series is that it embraces local musicians and the university’s Music Department, two characteristics Guilfoil and Indrisano said they set out to achieve from the beginning.
Indrisano said attendance this year has been “up at least 50 percent” compared to last year.
In addition to State Radio, last Friday’s concert presented two other bands, each possessing a Northeastern connection.
In Simplest Form, a duo featuring freshman Alex Schneiderman and sophomore Ramon Narvaez, kicked off the show with an hour-long acoustic set. By the third song, the audience was singing along to the group’s catchy lyrics, enjoying its Jack Johnson-like rhythm.
“They’re really up-and-coming,” Guilfoil said. “If [Indrisano] has them open for State Radio, then they’ve got to be good.”
Following Simplest Form, fellow Northeastern band, Greenline, took the stage.
“Greenline has been here about five or six times this year and they always bring a big crowd,” Guilfoil said. “They’re so high energy and they get where they’re going so well. They’re a good band and they’re going to go places.”
Beginning the set with a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Eyes of the World,” the group’s jam-oriented sound was well-received by an audience nostalgic for the days of Dispatch.
At the same time, it was evident by the audience’s enthusiasm during Greenline’s performance that the band has developed a following of their own.
“State Radio is still cool, but [Greenline] is just an added reason to go,” said Brian Piles, a middler civil engineering major. Piles said he and his friends attended the show because he is friends with members of Greenline.
While there were fans of Greenline, other students were drawn by Urmston for his connection with Dispatch.
“Having done this before, I thought the way to make it really great for everybody is to put Northeastern bands with bigger bands, that way the students would draw [a crowd],” Indrisano said.
On Friday, the series will draw to a close with its largest-scale show of the series, Guilfoil said. The Pat McGee Band, an acoustic sextet that has toured extensively since 1996, is scheduled to headline a 9 p.m. show.
The group has sold over 100,000 copies of its self-released albums and played alongside music legends such as Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor and Ziggy Marley.
