Northwestern’s For Members Only will host a concert Saturday featuring the artists Jhene Aiko, Kids These Days and PacDiv, according to the FMO website.
Newly elected FMO Coordinator Justin Clarke said he thinks these “on the rise” artists are a perfect combination of R&B, hip-hop, rap and jazz, which caters to the diverse music interests of the NU student body. NU students can obtain “as complete a concert experience as you can get,” the Weinberg junior said.
The concert will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Louis Room in Norris University Center. Tickets are five dollars, which can be purchased online or at the door, according to the Facebook event page.
“I am excited for the interaction between the artists and crowd, and the atmosphere that creates,” Clarke said. “When choosing these artists I considered, do these performers reflect the energy of a NU student?”
Jhene Aiko, the opening act, is a “young and free R&B artist,” according to Clarke. Following her is Kids These Days, a group of young artists, some of whom attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago. Kids These Days performed at Lollapalooza last summer and the South By Southwest music festival in March in Austin, Texas. Clarke stressed it is “crazy” that such a young group has performed at such high-end venues.
Ashley Powell, an FMO member, attended Whitney Young with some of the members of Kids These Days. She said the band presents a new generation of music which she describes as “hipster, teenage, ethnic and extremely urban.”
“In high school they always had a unique style and a unique way of dress,” the Medill sophomore said. “They were pretty cool. When you saw them come down the hall, they would always stand out.”
Pac Div, a group of three southern Californian rap artists who also performed at South by Southwest, will close the show, Clarke said.
This year, Clarke said, FMO did not partner up with A&O Productions to produce the concert. He said he wanted FMO to put on its concert without the help of the A&O logo.
Clarke said he also wanted to be able to say that FMO helped bring rising stars to campus.
“These artists are new, hungry, young and rising,” he said. “It’s important that their performance here adds to their credit.”
Although FMO would receive more Associated Student Government funding if it co-sponsored its concert with A&O, Clarke said he still wanted to host a concert.
Past FMO concerts included artists such as Clipse, Chip Tha Ripper, and The Cool Kids. Clarke said what he liked best about last year’s concert was the “screaming and jumping up and down” energy exuded from the audience, and this year he said he hopes the concert will achieve the same.
FMO senior Dallas Wrightsaid since he also attended a Chicago high school, he is really excited to see Kids These Days. The Medill senior said he has only seen certain members of the group perform individually, so he is excited to see them play collectively.
Wright added that last year’s concert acts seemed “disjointed,” but this year, he said, the acts will “blend together” better.
“To me, the mood of the music and the sound each act compliments each other,” Wright said. “I think it will be a very fluid show.”
