About 250 Northwestern students braved 40-degree weather Friday night to enjoy a free concert headlined by Chicago-based band Lucky Boys Confusion in the fraternity quads as part of Interfraternity Council’s Fall Fest.
Although the show got off to a slow start, LBC sped things up at about 9 p.m. Performing for the first time at NU, the band quickly energized the crowd with its eclectic, upbeat punk sound. After remaining more or less dead during the opening act, the crowd formed into a mosh pit for songs “Child’s Play” and “Arizona Stand.”
For many freshmen new to the NU scene, the pit was an unexpected surprise.
“You wouldn’t expect to see a bunch of Northwestern students getting down in the mosh pit, but they were, and everyone was just crazy, slamming around down there,” said Greg Miday, a Weinberg freshman who migrated to the pit once LBC took the stage.
Moshing quickly led to crowd-surfing, as several zealous students rode the waves of fellow students’ hands.
Crowd-surfer Eric Chun said the inconveniences of the jam-packed area and minor injuries endured in the pit were well worth it.
“Everyone up front had an awesome time. I got elbowed a few times and fell when I was crowd-surfing, but everyone helped you out, picked you up,” said Chun, a Weinberg freshman. “That’s the thing with Northwestern students. It’s all about safety.”
Though most were unfamiliar with LBC’s music, virtually all were in agreement that the band knew how to put on a good show.
“I had never heard of them before and usually listen mainly to rap, but they were tight,” said Joe Ortiz, a Weinberg freshman.
Several students from the Chicago area who were familiar with the group said they enjoyed seeing the hometown boys perform. Liz Rybka, a Loyola University sophomore, said she got a kick out of seeing them.
“It’s cool to see these guys play here after seeing them perform for so long in church basements and years ago,” she said, laughing.
IFC President Phil Ordway said he enjoyed the concert as well, calling it one of the best Fall Fests he had been to.
However, the show didn’t begin so brightly. Opening act Retro Morning, a rock cover band, found ingratiating themselves to the crowd a considerable challenge.
Heckling persisted from the crowd throughout the band’s set, as screams of “Retro boring!” and “We’ve got parties to go to” abounded. The only thing met with more sparse applause than the band’s songs were the keyboardist’s “dead baby” and “sexual intercourse with your grandmother” jokes, which received several dead stares and boos from the crowd.
“I’ve seen some bad bands,” said Shiva Sankar, a McCormick freshman. “But this one’s up there.”
