As members of hip-hop group Jurassic 5 took the stage in Patten Gym on Thursday night, a packed crowd of students greeted them with screams and cheers.

But what the excited audience members might not have known is that the band was asked to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight — and chose to keep their date at Northwestern.

“It was either dis the fans or dis Letterman. And look where we are!” Jurassic 5 MC Marc 7 told The Daily before the concert.

The event marked the first of two Fall Quarter concerts A&O Productions leaders say they hope to hold. It also marked the first on-campus concert since Philfest and the last big-name performer since Ben Harper played at Patten in February 2001.

Communication sophomore Cara Lewanda said the Jurassic 5 concert reassured her that although A&O has failed recently to bring big-name performers to campus, the group is off to a good start this year.

“After the Snoop Dogg debacle last year, it’s great to see that A&O is back on its feet and bringing us great concerts,” she said.

The $5 tickets sold out quickly, A&O Chairman Jonathan Berman said, and Patten was filled to capacity when the show began.

The Beatnuts bursted on the stage at 8 p.m. as the opening act. The hip-hop act promoted its latest album, “The Originator,” and hyped up the crowd before Jurassic 5 took the stage.

Between the two acts, A&O members threw hundreds of bottles of water at the crowd. Charles Birnbaum, A&O’s director of concerts, said the group knew ventilation was a problem in Patten and wanted to use preventative measures.

“We didn’t want people to pass out,” said Birnbaum, a Weinberg senior.

The water quenched the audience’s thirst, but it didn’t dampen its enthusiasm. Once Jurassic 5 began performing, students bounced to the beat and sang along.

When some fans got too excited, the emcees calmly asked people to back away from the stage and stop crowd surfing.

“People were getting out of hand, and (Jurassic 5) told them to quit that,” said Asha Haji, a McCormick sophomore in attendance.

But the Los Angeles-based group kept the crowd in good spirits by tailoring the show to NU. The four emcees and two deejays experienced much larger venues this summer while performing on the the Smokin’ Grooves Tour with Outkast, Lauryn Hill and the Roots.

Jurassic 5 went back on tour last month to promote their second full-length album, “Power In Numbers.” On Thursday night the group played songs from their new release as well as from 2000’s “Quality Control.”

Group members invited crowd participation by having students yell back at the stage and wave their hands in the air. For an encore they played three songs while increasing the speed with each.

“The energy was incredible,” said Kate Lazarus, a Weinberg sophomore. “They were so into it and they brought everybody alive.”

Students also said they were impressed at the value of the show.

“The concert was just $5 — you can’t beat that for money,” said Chris Mioton, a Weinberg freshman. “I would have paid $40 for that.”

For A&O, the show was the climax of months of planning, said Berman, a Weinberg senior.

“We’ve worked since the middle of the summer for this show,” he said. “That is how much production goes into a show of this magnitude.”

And A&O and the crowd’s energy didn’t go unnoticed, Jurassic 5’s MC Akil said.

“The crowd was really hype,” he told The Daily just after the concert. “It was hot and that built up the intensity.”