Switchfoot's performance proves lackluster

Publication Date: 04/16/2007

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Indiana University gets Yellowcard, Three 6 Mafia and O.A.R for Little 500. We got Switchfoot.

As part of the Grand Alternative for Grand Prix, Switchfoot played Slayter Hill Sunday. I wasn't impressed and I don't know if the crowd was either.

There were a few thousand people at Slayter, maybe, and the weather was decent but the crowd looked like a group of people that came out for a concert not a band. It didn't seem to matter who was playing. It was like a bunch of students thought, "There's a live band, might as well do some crowd surfing."

Students in the front crowd surfed and threw people in the air. They looked like a group of kids whose parents never let them go to concerts in high school.

That was entertaining. Switchfoot's cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" was entertaining, too, but it was too late.

Now I'm sure I've already offended someone. I'm sorry. Switchfoot just let me down. I mean they were great for the "A Walk to Remember" soundtrack, but come on. There had to be a few die hard fans there, but I'm sure if I walked around and asked, most people wouldn't know anything about the band.

Their lackluster songs and I'm-gonna-try-too-hard-by-smashing-a-cymbal-like-a-rock-star live show made me just shake my head. When I first heard Switchfoot was coming, a month or so ago, I thought to myself, "Can't we do better?"

If you go poke around www.concertideas.com you can see how limited our choices were. There were only about 50 others bands we could have probably got to play here.

This is what happens when you let people with bad musical taste pick music shows.

I've probably come off as some kind of musical elitist here, so I must go ahead and say I'm not. I like crappy bands like Switchfoot, too, but I don't subject thousands of people at my school to them.

Last year we had Lucky Boys Confusion. They aren't bad, but I didn't even go.

Two years ago, we had Hoobastank, Lost Prophets and Ima Robot. That was a rockin' show that filled Slayter with tons of students. There was some serious crowd surfing there, not the kind Switchfoot arouses.

Weren't we meant to live for so much more... better music?

Joey Marburger is a senior in the College of Liberal Arts. He can be reached at features@purdueexponent.org.