It is less than a month until April 5, the date set for the spring concert, and FUSA has finally named 21-year-old Howie Day as the headlining act for the show. The concert will be at Alumni Hall and will cost between $5 and $15 for students according to FUSA president Karen Donoghue.
Donoghue blames the bands who FUSA bid on for the late acceptance from Howie Day, who will be playing with an English band whose name was not available at press time.
“All the bands we bid on pulled out,” said Donoghue. “We consider ourselves lucky to even have a band because apparently a lot of other colleges in the northeast are being left in the dust.”
Simple Plan and Sum-41, the previous bands who were bid on by FUSA, both decided that they were not touring and backed out. The bid FUSA put in for the Dave Matthews Band for $75,000 was rejected in December but was accepted by the University of Rhode Island. URI will pay $275,000 and will charge students $50 per ticket, according to Donoghue.
Donoghue said that FUSA will begin promoting the show by using advertising campaigns and giving out CDs to get the word out about Day. According to www.howiefan.com, a Howie Day fan Web site, Day will also perform on April 2 as Boston College’s spring concert.
“I saw Howie Day in concert when he opened up for Dispatch at the Irving Plaza,” said John Doney, ’04. “He has some pretty cool songs and he has a nice voice… I’ll definitely check it out.”
“My sister introduced me to Howie Day,” said Jeremy Sawyer, ’04. “If the students give him a chance, he will definitely put on a good show.”
The following comes from Day’s official website: “On his debut [album], “Australia,” Day’s bittersweet songs evoke the spirit of a lifetime worth of lovesick nights spent dwelling on regret and drinking alone. ‘My songwriting is somewhat moody,’ agrees the singer-songwriter from Bangor, Maine. ‘It’s not intentional; I just write what I feel.'”
Other students had mixed feelings about Day coming to Fairfield.
“When I heard that Howie Day was coming to Fairfield, my first reaction was ‘Who is this guy?,'” said Mary McMinn, ’04. “Students want someone who is well-known… FUSA should take this more seriously and spend more time figuring this kind of thing out.”
Donoghue also stated that FUSA is planning on working with the Department of Residence Life to bring a comedian to campus because it is only spending $20,000 to bring Day to Fairfield.
“We are pulling together all of our leftover money since it is getting to be the end of the year,” Donoghue said. “We want to spend all of our budget.”
The comedian will hopefully be a well-known comedian, Donoghue said. “Hopefully one from Comedy Central or something like that.” The comedian will come the Friday after the Mr. Fairfield competition, which is sponsored by Residence Life.
“I’m sure the concert will get a decent amount of people to attend,” Doney said. “Howie Day is like Guster and those types of bands… it will be a good time.”
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