springfest 2010 spread

Sounds of SpringFest20 TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010 ● THE JUSTICE THE JUSTICE ● TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010 21

The 2010 Brandeis SpringFest beganwith a lot of expectations. Man Man,Chiddy Bang, Streetlight Manifestoand Passion Pit all in one concert?With free food and free admission?There had to be a catch. With the ex-ceptions of muggy weather and glaringsun, SpringFest 2010 was a huge suc-cess. The food was decent, the venuewas clean, and DJ Tao, who began theshow with a 30-minute set and playedmusic between acts, kept everyone en-tertained. Student Events and WBRSput on an amazing show.

The members of Man Man, facesdecorated with war paint and wearinga slew of funny hats, performed first.They started their band in Philadel-phia in 2003 and have been creating al-bums ever since. Although the crowdwas small and only started to form dur-ing Man Man’s act, the band charmedthe audience with their quirky clothes,fun lyrics and a wide variety of uniqueinstruments rarely found in live per-formances, such as a xylophone.

Chiddy Bang, a two-man rap groupconsisting of Chiddy (emcee) andXaphoon Jones (DJ/producer), per-formed next. The pair met at DrexelUniversity in Philadelphia and de-cided to create hip-hop music together.Toward the end of their act, XaphoonJones decided to play a game with theaudience. He claimed Chiddy couldfreestyle about anything and asked theaudience for three topics. The audi-ence chose donuts, drinking water andJudaism, and much to everyone’s sur-prise, Chiddy spit out a coherent andfluid rap. The most requested song bythe audience was a remix of theMGMT song “Kids.”

By the time Streetlight Manifestocame on, the crowd had begun tothicken. Streetlight, as the band issometimes called, is well-known in the

ska genre of music. Throughout theperformance, people were crowd-surf-ing and, as far as I could tell, attempt-ing to start a mosh pit. Althoughthings got a little crazy, the band per-formed well and was genuinely amus-ing, especially when one of the singerssaid to the audience, “What songwould you like to hear? Not that it mat-ters because we’re gonna play whatwant to.” And they did. The crowdloved Streetlight’s music no matterwhat song the band played, so therewere no complaints.

Although the first three acts weregreat, Passion Pit stole the show. Thecrowd was gigantic, stretching all theway back to the edges of Chapels Field,and it was unbelievably rowdy. Theband played all the crowd favorites butsaved the popular “Sleepyhead” forlast. Even when members of the alien-looking group. Leonard Bernstein Fes-tival of the Arts participants Big Nazoappeared in the audience, Passion Pitdid not waver from its songs and in-stead encouraged the freakish-lookingcreatures to come up onstage thoughthey had to settle for surfing the crowd.

From a purely physical perspective,the band was quite easy on the eyestoo. The curly, soft-looking hair of thelead singer looked as if it were dancingalong to the words pouring from hismouth. Passion Pit was a great band towatch. The band’s members engagedthe audience with their electric indiesound and performed their songs justlike they do on their albums Mannersand Chunk of Change.

Student Events and WBRS really dida great job pulling off this concert.Even though most of the audiencesweated buckets of water (which isquite a precious commodity thesedays), they attended an event that wasthe highlight of the year.

Editors note: Justice Arts editorBryan Flatt is a concerts coordinatorfor Student Events

By REBECCA BROOKSJUSTICE STAFF WRITER

ASHER KRELLT/the Justice

Sounds of SpringFestStudents soaked in

both the sun andsounds during

SpringFest

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

SKA SUPREME: Tomas Kalnoky, one of the singers and guitar players of bandStreetlight Manifeseto, plays a song during the band’s set on Sunday.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

FLOWING FREESTYLE: Chiddy, the emcee half of the up-and-coming rap groupChiddy Bang combined style and creativity during the freestyle portion of his set.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice

INTERESTING INSTRUMENTS: A member of Man Man plays one of their many eclecticinstruments while donning war paint as the band kicked off SpringFest.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

VIVACIOUS VOCALS: Michael Angelakos, leader singer and keyboardist of Passion Pit,sings to the audience. Above: Passion Pit rocks through the day’s intense heat.

ASHER KRELL/the Justice