Campus Philly kicks off well

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
October 3, 2007

College kids are extremely flaky. We have the attention span of a gnat, constantly flying from one place to the other in search of a new diversion. Anyone looking for evidence of this fact should have stopped by College Day on the Parkway this past weekend.

Erin Brodbeck - Against Me! upped the punx with New Wave over the summer.

The event was the perfect combination of friends, flyers and free stuff. The parkway was packed with undergrads from local schools scooping up giveaways from the number of booths lined up on either side of the street. I spent the whole day happily museum-hopping and picking up free vegetarian stickers from the PETA booth. Our own fine school was represented at a blue-and-gold-clad booth manned by Resident Student Association members passing out “I Am La Salle” bracelets.

Observing the crowd gave a scattershot impression of our generation, although the majority of attendees seemed to have acquired his or her entire wardrobe from the sale rack at Urban Outfitters. One of my favorite parts of the event was watching hipster kids take in the scene behind those huge sunglasses that make the wearer look like some sort of insect.

Being a typical college kid, I arbitrarily cancelled my plans to watch every performer on the stage at the end of the Parkway when a new opportunity presented itself. My attention waned before The Ataris even hit the stage when I found myself torn away by an awesome butterfly exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences. I walked around an extremely humid room where butterflies flew around freely while Ataris fans rocked out on the Parkway. Concertgoers told me both good and bad things about The Ataris’ set I missed out on, but the group of fans I saw flocked around lead singer Kristopher Roe afterwards looked mighty satisfied.

I finished hanging out in the science museum in time to catch Against Me!, a group of badass rockers dressed in black. They got the dance party started when they launched into material off their most recent album, New Wave. Fists pumped in the air during “Pints of Guiness Make You Strong” and “Don’t Lose Touch,” and one guy surfed the crowd.

Against Me! tore through its set list one song after another, and lead vocalist Tom Gabel said nothing to the crowd until he announced that the show was over.

I was most impressed with the fact that democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter seems to be an Against Me! fan. Or he’s just a fan of campaigning. He showed up with a posse of supporters who waved “Nutter for mayor” signs close to the stage, so I guess it turns out politicians like punk rock too.

After Against Me!, I gathered on the sidewalk with some friends to wait for Talib Kweli to show up. I lasted up until some sort of dance team arrived on the stage to groove to a new Kanye West tune, and then my college-kid ADD kicked in. My friends and I got hungry, so I ditched Kweli (sorry, man) and got some awesome Burmese food instead.

So, in true college fashion, I ended up flaking out on what I originally intended to be a review of the shows at College Day. But, this being a college newspaper, I know whoever is still reading this article understands that life can be majorly distracting, and sometimes you just have to flit around, sort of like those butterflies.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu