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Rusted Root will bring its distinctive blend of Latin, African, Eastern, soul, rock, and traditional American sounds to Lafayette’s Kirby Field House at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 4. The concert, sponsored by the Lafayette Activities Forum (LAF), has involved months of effort by many students, but two in particular, seniors Kevin “Chaz” Seaner of Churchville, Pa., and Jon McMeen of Mountain Lakes, N.J., have really done their part to ensure the success of the show.
Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at Utopia, 400 Northampton Street, Easton; Sound & Vision II in the Westgate Mall, Bethlehem; and Toone’s Records, 1901 Hamilton Street, Allentown. To charge tickets on Visa or MasterCard, call (610) 330-5337 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday or 5-11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Lafayette students may purchase tickets at the College Store for $18.
As LAF’s publicity cochair, Seaner is responsible for selling tickets. McMeen, the head of music programming, coordinates most of the behind the scenes arrangements.
“This will be our first big show without a promoter, or a middleman, so if we don’t do well we have only ourselves to blame,” says Seaner. But it shouldn’t be a problem.
“We have sold 500 tickets on campus so far, and we plan on selling about 1,000 more,” he adds. Another 3,000 tickets have been distributed to other schools and ticket agencies.
McMeen, who plans on a career in the financial side of the music industry, feels the concert will be a success.
“We sold more tickets for this show on the first day than we sold for the Dave Matthews Band,” he says. “Lafayette has a very good reputation right now with promoters and bands. Not only do we deliver the crowds, we also keep the bands happy.” For example, he notes, their 10-page contract with Rusted Root stipulates the band be served only organically grown food.
It’s not easy to land a hugely popular group, Seaner says.
“Big bands are hard to get. You’re constantly in competition with other colleges,” he says. It’s not easy accommodating all campus tastes, either. “It’s hard to get everyone to agree on a band.”
Once a band is booked, successful publicity is the next task.
“You have to come up with so many creative ways to publicize an event. You need to use all the resources you have,” says Seaner. McMeen, for his part, has been concentrating on making sure the concert is, in his words, “perfect.”
“This is a massive production,” he says. “We’re talking about four tour buses and two tractor-trailers full of lights and equipment. Watching it all come together is what I really love.”
An electrical engineering major, Seaner has always been interested in music and used to play in a band. McMeen, an economics and business major, traces his musical roots to his father, a world renowned Celtic acoustic guitarist. He says working on the business side of the music industry is his calling.