Crowd, bands make concert successful

By Megan Finnerty
Features Editor

There was a man in a white bunny suit.

His bunny ears drooped and sweat poured out from underneath his headpiece Saturday afternoon at the18th Slayter Slammer as he shook his cottony tail on stage.

"They came up to me and asked me if I wanted to wear a bunny suit and dance around, and I was like, 'OK,'" said Collin Welch, a senior in the School of Engineering and a friend of the Slizzard Kings who played as he danced. "I was pretty hot; I almost died up there near the end."

The Slizzard Kings, a popular area band, covered crowd favorites such as "Walkin' On Sunshine," and "Blister in the Sun" as die hard fans rallied around the stage and those on the hill sang along or just watched.

As the afternoon wore on, the hill steadily filled with students and community members; it was then that those organizing the event knew it had been a success.

Slayter Slammer president Derek Thomas of Triangle Fraternity said he and other organizers, Acacia, Alpha Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Omicron Pi, and Alpha Chi Omega, were pleased with the large turnout.

"They're here to have a great time and they're really enthusiastic, getting into it," he said of the audience members.

Although last year's event was canceled because of financial and communication problems, this year the participating Greeks had more fund raisers, were more organized and secured support from two area radio stations.

Mandie Rebich, a junior in the School of Liberal Arts and a member of one of the participating sororities, danced near the stage with several friends, all clad in the gray T-shirts that were sold to raise money for the show.

"We're having so much fun," she shouted over the deafening guitars of the Terre Haute band Render One. "I've always liked Days of the New. I can't wait till they come on."

Abby Hodges, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts, was also looking forward to Days of the New and said this year's Slayter Slammer was better than the ones she had been to previously.

"Anything's better than Matchbox Twenty," she said. "And I really want to see if Travis Meeks is drunk. I heard he performs drunk a lot."

And when the reincarnated version of this B-list alternative rock band hit the stage, so did the fans.

As Days of the New launched into the first chords from one of its two hits, "Touch, Peel and Stand," throngs of students wandered to the stage to sway, but not quite dance.

Bare-chested, goateed and adorned with tattoos, Meeks strummed his acoustic and screamed, doing his best imitation of Chris Cornell.

The highlight of the band and of the afternoon was Days of the New's drummer. His pulsing, steady drums lead the band and dominated the show. A mix of pounding bass drum peppered with conga and bongo sounds added freshness to the hard rock sound of this otherwise standard rock band.

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Features editor:
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