Megan PellegrinoCollege students from all over the Philadelphia area gathered for free concerts by established and up-and-coming bands, Saturday, Sept. 27, for the annual College Day. The day is part of Campus Philly the city of Philadelphia.
Campus Philly provided a stunning visual of loads of students milling around in a sense of togetherness and festivity all down the Ben Franklin Parkway, amid the flags of all the different countries flapping above their heads.
A main and local stage hosting bands that were placed on opposite ends of the Parkway made it a day of exercise to walk back and forth between the two as well, as a day of enjoyment with numerous organizations handing out information about internship opportunities as well as a huge amount of free material.
The main Intern U stage hosted three bands: Armor for Sleep, a rock band from New Jersey, The Cool Kids, a hip hop band from Illinois and Twelve Twenty, a rock band from Philadelphia.
The local stage had performances by a band made up of a young husband and wife celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary named the Victor Victor Band, a band composed of young college men who call themselves The Robes and a female solo artist, named Patty Crash, who rocked out with her sleeveless D.A.R.E shirt.
Amongst the different styles and music, one thing was clear: There were a great deal of individual positive reactions to the music. While some bystanders had to be interviewed to make their opinions known, others went to quite an extent to make their feelings obvious.
A group of female students flaunting t-shirts that had The Robes air brushed in big letters on them, jumped up and down and cheered loudly.
An earlier act in the day, the Victor Victor Band also caused quite a stir as on lookers literally turned their focus from the Motor Speed event going on simultaneously on the other side of the street to a two-person band of a husband and wife.
One college student was particularly taken with the band. “They are probably the first original band I have seen today. The ideas of their songs are original. The texture of their songs is original too,” Matt Subits, a student from the Community College of Philadelphia, said.
Erich Hall, another on-looker that was mesmerized with the set, said, “They’re fantastic. It’s amazing that you can get that much sound out of two people.”
“Victor is our [her and her husband Jamie’s] last name,” Danielle Victor, of the Victor Victor Band said, when asked about the name of her band.
She later went on to describe the meaning behind her favorite song that they played in the set called, “Salt in the Sky,” “which either could be about aliens taking you away or about love.”
Danielle has only been playing the drums for three years and just recently learned how to play the keyboard.
They describe their music as being a combination of rock n’ roll, the blues and psychedelic. Both were very excited to do the gig for Campus Philly and were picked out from numerous bands to perform by XPN radio.
Another big band to grace the main stage was Armor for Sleep. A crowd of excited college students rocked out and even started a mosh pit.
This band seemed to have quite a fan base. “I have been listening to them for six years. I grew up with them,” Blake Boxer, freshmen multimedia major at the University of the Arts, said.
“Whenever I listen to this kind of music, I can forget all of (the) things I worried about,” Yoonsoon Jang, an ELP student at the University of Pennsylvania, a fan of Armor for Sleep said.
John Grabelle Herrmann, executive director of Campus Philly, explained the “big picture” purpose of an event like Campus Philly is to keep more people in the Philadelphia area after they graduate.
“Regions that are growing economically have more people with college degrees in their workforce. They are 360,000 college students in the Philadelphia area and 92 institutions of higher education. So if we get more students plugged into the city, the more they’re going to stay here and there going to be jobs and more economic growth,” Herrmann said.
The benefits of going to Campus Philly are more than just being able to hear music and see bands play for free.
You can sign up to be part of their weekly e-mail, The Click, and even sign up to take part in their online internship fair and gain professional contacts.
If you want to learn more about Campus Philly check out their Web site campusphilly.org.
