It was a loud and crazy night in the FAU Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium on Thursday. There were teenagers running rampant – screaming and begging just to get a chance to meet their favorite band.
Last week, Ontario-based rock band Silverstein played on FAU’s Boca Raton campus. Palm Beach Gardens High School senior Sherrice Johnsen was upset at the restrictions the campus enforced for the performance.
“I’m surprised that FAU would get Silverstein to play on their campus,” Johnsen said. “[But] I was also disappointed that it was in an auditorium with seats. I wanted to mosh and I couldn’t!”
The quintet usually plays for audiences that are not restricted to sitting in chairs, usually being able to freely mosh. Well, that wasn’t the case for Silverstein’s visit to FAU. The crowd was asked to stay in their seats due to regulations made by the auditorium. One of the opening acts, 2007 Battle of the Bands winner Crimson Versa, encouraged fans to come to the front of the stage. Fans were disappointed when security guards and FAU police asked them to returned to their seats, restricting their hard core rock outs. As fans dwindled into the auditorium, Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts junior Emily Mosca wondered why it wasn’t a packed auditorium.
“I’m surprised how few people are here,” Mosca said. “Most are still in high school.”
While Silverstein does target a certain type of audience – rock fans – that shouldn’t have made a difference. It was still on a college campus with thousands of students. The auditorium seemed to be filled primarily with high school teenagers. Plus, the price for FAU students was $7 cheaper then the price for general admission. It was cheap, local, and should have appealed to more college students then it did.
If there was one disappointing part of the night, it would have been how fans reacted to having a moment of silence for Virginia Tech. Battle of the Bands 2nd place winner and opening act Copasetic asked the crowd to have one moment of silence for the 33 people who died earlier last week. Instead, the crowd insisted on saying rude remarks, such as, “who cares?” while adding disrespectful moans and groans. This was a time to pay condolences to the families of the victims, yet all the crowd could do was show contempt. After this horror, Copasetic continued to their set as if nothing happened.
After Copasetic and Crimson Vera performed, Silverstein hit the stage. Silverstein performed their hits, along with one track that they had never played live. Their album is set for a July 3rd release, leading Silverstein to play numerous songs that fans had never heard before. This enticed fans to pay closer attention to the music, finally making the crowd dance. When any new music is played at a concert, true fans will always cheer with excitement, and that was the case at Thursdays show.
Despite the low turnout, most fans didn’t even notice. Silverstein put on a great show that captivated the audience with their new songs. Hopefully the next time a Rock band plays FAU, there will be a larger crowd.
For more information about Silverstein, Click Here to visit their official Web site.
