For Dickinson’s 2024 fall concert, MOB and WDCV welcomed rapper NLE Choppa to campus, which was organized by the two clubs’ concert chairs, Isaac Landis ’27 and Claire Choplick ’26. Known for songs like “Gang Baby” and “SLUT ME OUT,” NLE Choppa performed a high-energy set to a sold-out crowd of nearly 750 people in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS).
Along with the performance, there was another aspect of the night that was special to me. Between Landis and Choplick, myself, MOB Chair Selene Nguyen ’25, WDCV Co-Station Manager Jay Case ’25 and Assistant Director for Campus Activities Ryan Patton ’23, there were also four years worth of current and former MOB and WDCV concert chairs present. As it was my last Dickinson fall concert, this bit had me reminiscing on live music on campus over the past four years.
During my first year, we still had to social distance due to COVID-19, and live music on campus was fairly infrequent. Other than the fall and spring concerts, I only remember one outside band playing on campus, BRNDA. Along with those, I am only aware of one student band together at that time, August Company.
However, sophomore year saw a major explosion in music on campus. WDCV started to host open mics at that time, with a crowd filling the living room of Outhouse. That was also when I started to notice a significant increase in student bands. Between groups like Green Tangerine, Lady MacBeth and High Street, student bands started to take off at this time, and performing at campus events that did not just have a music focus.
Junior year saw even more student bands forming – Bongwater, No Permit and the Ticketpunchers among them. Along with that, WDCV started to yet again host concerts with smaller artists from around the area, such as Restrung and Mellow Honey.
Now that I have seen four years of live music at Dickinson, including an open mic that filled the Bosler Hall atrium back in October, I have on ask of the Dickinson community. Go see some live music! Local artists, whether they be students or performers in the area, do a lot of amazing work, and make songs that I listen to just as much as popular artists.
Local live music is such a fun way to spend a night, and you should support the artists that make up our local music scene. Along with that, concerts like the NLE Choppa concert provide really cool opportunities to see artists before they get big – imagine being able to say you saw the next big superstar at a venue for less than 1,000 people.
