As a senior at Ithaca I had never been to a concert on campus before, but when I heard Ithaca College had booked D.R.A.M. to give a concert on campus, I was so excited! I’ve been to over a dozen different concerts throughout my life, covering many different genres, but rap music is my current go-to to see live. I bought my tickets a few weeks ago and couldn’t wait for March 3. Now when I look back on Friday night, all I can say is that it was an interesting time.
It’s hard to hold a successful concert when only a few people know the opening artists or everyone in the crowd only knows a few songs in general. And this is exactly what happened. The concert opened with two of IC’s very own, Whack Genius and Ava Knew. Both put on great shows, except only a few people in the already small crowd knew their music, so people started getting antsy for D.R.A.M.. Some males in the crowd even decided to yell misogynist comments at Ava because they wanted D.R.A.M. to come out instead. I understand wanting to see the main performer, especially after waiting for a long time, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to yell derogatory comments at a female who is doing what she loves and is good at it! Unfortunately, D.R.A.M. coming out didn’t make anything better.
D.R.A.M. started by having his DJ come out and play popular music to get the crowd hyped, but then he came out singing one of his slower songs that no one in the crowd knew. It was awesome to see him live and he is a good performer, but his decision to play only slow songs that no one knew for almost your entire set. At one point I left the crowd, went to the back of the barely crowded Emerson Suite (no way it was “sold out”), took off my shoes, and sat down because it wasn’t worth being pushed into by other people anymore. When he finally did play the three or four songs that everyone knew, it was only slightly better. All the songs were at the end of the set and kind of rushed. Yes, he did play “Broccoli”, his most popular song, but it was a slowed down version with only his lines from the song making it extremely short.
All in all, the night was an experience I’m glad I had. It’s cool to be able to add D.R.A.M. to the lists of artists I’ve seen, but I’m even more glad that it’s over.
Oh! And a big shout-out to IC for emailing us a few hours before the show saying “NO BAGS, COATS OR BOTTLES WILL BE ALLOWED IN (VERY IMPORTANT we know it will be cold but you will be waiting in line inside most of the time so it should not be a problem!)” and that “there will be no coat check” when it was 27 degrees out that night.