TO THE EDITOR:
The Carolina Union Activities Board has dropped the ball again. There have been two types of reactions to news of the New Pornographers headlining our Homecoming concert from my group of friends: “Who?” or “You’ve got to be kidding.”
I hate bashing on the New Pornographers because, in all honesty, I like their music and they do have a lot of fans for being indie Canadian rock. But they aren’t nearly popular enough to headline UNC’s Homecoming.
From a completely logistical and fiscal standpoint, CUAB is most likely going to lose money on this venture.
They took a relatively obscure band and are putting them front and center at UNC. Do they remember how well Big K.R.I.T. did? New Pornographers isn’t a band that screams “sold-out show.” UNC is a 20,000-student campus, where all students have a wide variety of tastes.
Digging through obscure indie rock to find a Homecoming band isn’t going to produce very profitable results. Not to bring the wrath of hipsters down upon me, but UNC needs someone mainstream to perform, or at least someone that appeals to a much larger group than New Pornographers.
Duke put on a Lupe Fiasco show and even ECU was able to get Wiz Khalifa to perform. UNC, as with everything else, can do as well or better than both these schools.
If it’s a budgetary concern, let the students know. We can help. Has CUAB forgotten about Snoop last year? That was a student-led effort and it ended up bringing a high-profile (no pun intended) act to UNC for free.
With all due respect to the New Pornographers and their fans, UNC deserves someone bigger. CUAB, you have got to do better.
