Concert Review: Violent Femmes @ Anderson Arena, BGSU (4/11/1997)
Like a lot of concerts in my college days, exact dates are bit… hazy. I know it was in the Spring of 1997, but I’m not exactly sure of the date (update - thanks to BG News archives, I nailed down the date - April 11th). Unlike most other concerts I attended, this one I had a personal involvement in. The Bowling Green State University Universities Activity Organization had approached our radio station in the Fall of 1996 to get ideas on bringing a musical artist to BG in the Spring around the same time the station was researching the same concept. As I just moved into the Programming Director role, I got picked to work with the UAO and review a list of artists they had already narrowed down to based on costs.
As we were an alternative rock station, alternative rock bands made sense for us. The UAO crowd had a different idea, preferring a safe pick like Blues Traveler or The Steve Miller Band. Ultimately UAO made the final decision and went with the Violent Femmes, who pretty much a legacy act by 1997 and not relevant to our station.
Some politics went on that I wrote about at the time (and comes across as pretty immature and whiny, to be honest) and the show was not enjoyable from a personal standpoint, though the band was fine, and afterward while helping them load out turned out to be relatively nice and friendly guys.
As we were an alternative rock station, alternative rock bands made sense for us. The UAO crowd had a different idea, preferring a safe pick like Blues Traveler or The Steve Miller Band. Ultimately UAO made the final decision and went with the Violent Femmes, who pretty much a legacy act by 1997 and not relevant to our station.
Some politics went on that I wrote about at the time (and comes across as pretty immature and whiny, to be honest) and the show was not enjoyable from a personal standpoint, though the band was fine, and afterward while helping them load out turned out to be relatively nice and friendly guys.