Common Cents Music Fest hits Northeastern with show-stopping performances
October 20, 2022
The lights turned low, and the music ramped up. Illuminating strobe lights from the stage cast a halo of light around Faye Webster as she belted out a melody from her top hit, Kingston. Students in the crowd sat in lawn chairs; some stood with friends, dancing to the tunes. It was a night to remember for the Northeastern campus — especially since it was the first time in almost a decade that a concert like this has occurred on campus.
The Common Cents Music Festival brought music and good vibes to Northeastern Oct. 3. The Live Music Association, or LMA, at Northeastern collaborated with WRBB Radio and the Resident Student Association to bring this festival to life. Faye Webster, who is known for her unique indie-folk hits, headlined the show alongside Armand Hammer, Winkler and Eph See.
Alex Eubanks, a fourth-year business administration and philosophy double major and president of LMA, had his mind set on putting the festival together long before the fall semester began.
“We’ve been planning the festival since May,” Eubanks said. “We sent over 200 emails back and forth with all the productions we work with a lot.”
LMA typically runs performances at AfterHours, Northeastern’s private performance venue, so putting together a show of this scale came with many difficulties. In the past, LMA has hosted events with lower-profile artists, but LMA was new to hosting artists as well-known as the ones billed at Common Cents, Eubanks said.
“We ran into an issue with permitting, and then we had to delay,” Eubanks said. “The biggest challenge for us was the unknowns. We know what it takes to plan an indoor concert in AfterHours because we’ve done that before, but not knowing what it is that you have to do and trying to do it along the way was challenging.”
Despite the difficulties that came with the production, the students at LMA pulled everything together by showtime, and students shared their excitement over the performances.
Charlie Minney and Karina Peak, both first-year mechanical engineering majors, attended the show together.
“We’re mostly here for the vibes,” Peak said. “We heard about it and just wanted to listen to some music.”
Minney and Peak said they had never listened to the artists prior to the performances, but both enjoyed the atmosphere of the show.
“It’s pretty calm,” Minney said. “Everybody seems to be really enjoying the music and bopping along to it.”
Since LMA is a student-run organization, funding for the festival was limited. But seeing the crowds of students gathered on Centennial Common was worth the effort for Eubanks.
“We’re terrible at estimating numbers of people, but I’d say I’m happy with the turnout, too,” he said.
Looking to the future, LMA leaders said they are eager to turn the Common Cents Fest into an annual event.
“We already have ideas for how to make it bigger and better next year and future years,” Eubanks said. “So, fingers crossed. If the stars align, we would love to do it.”
Editor’s note: The story was updated Monday Oct. 24 at 10:35 p.m. to better reflect past performers hosted by the Live Music Association.
