WEEKEND // THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012
SPRING FLING spring flung
PAGE B2
WEEKEND SPRING
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE B3
FLING
A POET IS BORN, AND IT’S A BIT T-PAINFUL // BY BRAD TRAVIS
Driveby Live Passion // BY DEVIKA MITTAL
PASSION PIT T-PAIN
// FLORIAN KOENIGSBERGER
T-Pain wants to buy you a drink.
Before you read this article, be forewarned: prior to my admission to Yale, the only concerts I regularly attended occurred not in stadiums, but in opera houses and symphony halls. You might call mine a different (read: bizarre) childhood. Nonetheless, I have managed to enjoy myself thoroughly in the sweaty throngs of the last three Spring Flings. This year’s festivities, as I’m sure you’ll agree, were quite something. That the weather cooperated was nothing short of a miracle. Better still, no Yalie could ignore the sheer joy that captured the crowd as Passion Pit finally launched into “Little Secrets” (but actually, who doesn’t like that song?). But the true spectacle of the day belonged to none other than the king of Auto-Tune himself. Though I can’t fathom what exactly my classmates might have expected of T-Pain, I must confess that seeing the man in the flesh was rather disorienting. You see, ever since I first heard his 2007 hit “Buy U a Drank,” I have thought of T-Pain not as Faheem Rasheed Najm (yes, that’s his real name), but rather as a grillsporting robot voice clad in some seriously dope shades. You can imagine my surprise when he swaggered onto the stage wearing a Yale zip-up and T-shirt ensemble. For all my musical narrow-mindedness, I caught myself delighting in the computerized waves of sound that churned through Old Campus. This was especially surprising given that I still don’t know all the lyrics to “Get Low”; I almost felt guilty. But as the set wore on, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being duped. As far as I could tell, much of the singing — perhaps shouting is a better term — came not from T-Pain, but from his sidekick, DJ Lil Boy. At points, I caught myself staring at the onstage dancers, unaware of the particular song blasting in my ears. Yet more dubious was the possibility that T-Pain was merely lipsyncing while his entourage did the real work. While turning these thoughts over in my head, it hit me that I was thinking much too hard. I had missed the point: with T-Pain, what you see (or hear?) is what you get. After all, I couldn’t very well expect an artist who has essentially built his career on clever applications of tuning software to deliver a knockout live performance. He gave us not just what we wanted, but what we
expected; Lord knows we Yalies love being right. I doubt anyone turned up sincerely hoping that T-Pain might, God forbid, reinvent his musical style on the spot. But let’s be serious, even an impromptu Celine Dion cover would have proved less bizarre than what happened near the end of the set. Apparently seized by his creative muse, T-Pain delivered unto us his very own Sermon on the Mount, which I have taken the liberty of titling “Me Time.” Fortunately, thanks to a little voice in my head, I caught the whole thing on my iPhone. You see, contrary to popular belief, T-Pain is not some talentless lyric-writing sidekick. In fact, he has penned numerous successful hits, securing several Grammys along the way. In his own eyes, though, T-Pain is tired of playing pinch hitter for your favorite rappers. No, “this year, it’s all about T-Pain.” Now that I’ve watched the video over again, what tumbled out of his mouth amounts to not just a self-congratulating monologue, but an outright challenge to his haters. Believe me, I’d love to relate here some of the things he said last night, but I fear T-Pain’s words might not jive quite the same way in print (that is, offend most everyone in some way). Just take my word for it that some of the tamer lines would have made even Charlie Sheen wince. But what puzzled me more than the vulgarity and randomness of T-Pain’s aside was the reaction of the crowd, myself included. Come to think of it, the tone of his lengthy freestyle was not much different than that of the bulk of his work (most of which features certain words starting with “p” and “n,” if you get my drift). Essentially, T-Pain surprised us by doing what no one was really expecting: he talked. Did we suddenly become better listeners, or perhaps more sensitive, when he stepped down from his pedestal of Auto-Tune? I can’t really say. At any rate, it was clear that about four minutes into his spiel, T-Pain had thoroughly confused his audience. What with the uncomfortably silent transitions between songs and the deadliest microphone to grace the Spring Fling stage, T-Pain managed to put on quite a show, if you can call it that. Contact BRAD TRAVIS at bradley.travis@yale.edu .
I’mma Buy U a Backlash // BY JORDI GASSÓ
While you and your biffles lost yourselves, your phones and your selfworth within the mud pit that is Old Campus during Spring Fling, others probably plugged their ears to block out the unwanted noise. As a matter of fact, it should come as no surprise that the arrival of T-Pain last Tuesday ruffled a few feathers. When someone at Yale gets offended, we all know. We are an emphatic bunch — sometimes irascible, sometimes dogmatic, sometimes in the right. And for each of the past three Spring Flings, at least one artist selection has set our opinionated cogwheels in motion. These musicians share two points in common: they are rappers, and their lyrics are branded by some as degrading to women. Two years ago, while MGMT’s apathetic performance took everyone and their mothers aback, the Ying Yang Twins had already set some corners of our campus abuzz with disapproval. Despite what were perceived as their misogynistic image, the Spring Fling committee at the time described them as an “unbeatable option” and stressed that their selection did not represent an endorsement of their lyrics’ message. Still, in protest to this choice, an alternate concert was held in the Trumbull courtyard on the day of Spring Fling, where student groups played amid pizza and face painting while the Twins performed on Old Campus. “While we considered a few hip-hop artists who were not offensive, when we evaluated all of the hip-hop artists
solely based on entertainment value and cost, the Ying Yang Twins were clearly the best choice,” the Spring Fling committee wrote in a letter published in the News a week before the event. Even Lupe Fiasco caused some stir last year. “Can you please put your titties closer to the 22s?” he sings in one of his ditties (but at least he asks politely). The outcry was minimal, the show went on and the crowd still sang along to “Superstar.” Many obstacles seem clear during the artist selection process. It is tough to find a mainstream, affordable rapper who is not somewhat offensive, and the powers that be obviously place more emphasis on finding an artist that the majority of Yalies will enjoy. That said, the assertive words of Kathleen Powers ’12 (who’s written two opinion pieces opposing two different Spring Fling musician choices) make a valid point: “Events like the Ying Yang Twins’ performance, DKE’s parade and T-Pain’s impending arrival have a common source,” she wrote last week. “Our culture deems this rhetoric acceptable.” Now T-Pain has come up and left the stage following a similar backlash to the one in 2010. However, no protest events were held as an alternative, and as of Wednesday night, there have been no confirmed accounts of Yale women actually taking their mothereffing shirts off when T-Pain lyrically commanded them to do so. “With T-Pain, the number of people
who were excited to see him far exceeds the handful of people who were upset because they find his music offensive,” said Emily Yin ’13, marketing vice president for last year’s Spring Fling committee. Yin then points to the Spring Fling survey sent to student months prior to the concert. As a former member of the committee, she said, what students say they want is very influential. The committee looks through the artists that ranked the highest on the survey, excludes those that would not fit the budget, and then attempts to pick the acts that would actually perform well live and muster a crowd, she explained. In essence, if students didn’t like T-Pain, the committee wouldn’t have voted in favor of T-Pain. It’s not as if the committee never considers an artist’s reputation. A year prior to the Ying Yang Twins’ performance, the committee decided against pursuing hip-hop artist Akon in spite of his popularity among students, because of his music’s misogynistic message (“Smack that till you get sore,” “But you already know, I wanna f--- you,” and his list of offenses continues.) All in all, most Yalies interviewed don’t necessarily see a trade-off between talent and offensiveness. “It’s important that we balance our desire for big headliners with our other values as a community,” Jaya Wen ’12 said. “It is true that the very act of paying an artist to visit our campus and perform for our student body is an act
I’m going to be honest here; before the Spring Fling line up was released, I had never heard of Passion Pit. It’s possible that I’m not indie enough (shameless fan of now-mainstream Gotye) but I’d like to think that’s not the case. Listening to their songs on YouTube made them seem like every other well-educated, takethemselves-too-seriously, offbeat band. However, I’m glad to say that I changed my opinion after watching them live. Arguably the best performance of the day, Passion Pit brought a certain flavor of authenticity and a raw emotion that Yalies were seen to enjoy more than the mechanised sounds and lip synching of T-Pain. Bursting forth with energy, the members of the electropop band jumped around on stage, encouraging the crowd to sway and lose themselves to the music. Having experienced the show from seven feet above the ground (literally — by being placed on someone’s shoulders), it was clear to me that Passion Pit’s set was enjoyed by most of the concert goers present on Old Campus. Following on the heels of undergraduate Yalie opening acts, their performance started off a little lackluster and lethargic — probably due to the restlessness and inattentiveness of the crowd. But all that changed soon after. From above, watching the crowd was like watching a mass of sluggish sea creatures experiencing a common electric shock and suddenly buzzing to life together. Although there weren’t many screaming fans hyperventilating or asking for autographs, people were seen enjoying the music by linking arms, pumping up and down, and even slow dancing to their own beat. Deriving their name from a slang term for drive-in theaters, the band’s music evokes the same sense of “romantic allure and privacy” that their name conjures up. Starting off with some rather typically indie songs, they soon moved on to their more distinctive and popular music. The band played many of the tracks off their album “Manners,” which features their best songs. It’s a shame that most of the crowd was too busy appreciating the sweet, honeylike quality of lead singer Michael Angelakos’ voice to pick up on the varied, velvet layers of the songs. However, as Shreya Ghei ’15 said,
of endorsement.” And while the committee’s main concern is to bring artists that can get students riled up about the event, Ifeanyi Awachie ’14 said Spring Fling does not have to be a showcase of artists who are already popular, but an opportunity for students to discover new music. For as Powers and Wen suggest, our excitement and student activities fees are both being offered to the artists we bring for Spring Fling. If our voice is what truly counts, as the committee has stated time and time again, then maybe the survey sent out to the student body should include explicit questions about selection criteria and not just an extensive inventory of artists, as proposed by Matthew Shafer ’13 in an interview. “This would allow student opinion about the importance (or non-importance) of artistic politics and ethics to be reflected, even if they aren’t familiar with the content of the lyrics of every artist on the long list that’s sent out,” Shafer said. This week, a mighty portion of campus was on an effing boat with T-Pain in exhilaration and drunken haze. Come next year, unless we can reach a consensus on how to follow up on his act, we will always come across a handful of Yalies jumping off the Spring Fling ship in protest. Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jmgj11@gmail.com .
“They were unique. More importantly, they were so much better than T- Pain!” The band ended their set with “Little Secrets,” the perfect conclusion to an amazing performance. For the stereotypical Yalie — garbed in neon Wayfarers matching neon pants — Passion Pit’s mix of mellow and stimulating songs was entirely fitting. Yes, like every other alternative band, Passion Pit croons about being hurt, being lovers, having feelings in general and feeling alive, but
Before Toad’s, 3LAU keeps party on Old Campus
that’s okay. Their music is an apt background to our memories of Tuesday’s events, whether seen from high up in the air or with faces pressed onto the soil or into the bushes. It is befitting of the stage set forth by Spring Fling, where bodies and sweat mingle with nostalgia, despair, hope and the coy promises of more to come.
// EARL LEE
Oh Michael Angelakos, serenade us with your honeyed voice.
Contact DEVIKA MITTAL at devika.mittal@yale.edu .
3LAU
// BY JOY SHAN
When it comes to music, my taste lacks nuance. My analysis of live performances follows a simple flowchart. Does the concert move me to tears (example: Jeff Mangum performing solo at the Shubert earlier this semester)? And if not, does it make me want to drop everything and dance until I’m dizzy? If I cannot answer “yes” to either of these questions, I will deem the act unworthy of the effort it takes to see it live (even if the show takes place in my own backyard). Like I said, unnuanced. And my criteria for Spring Fling is no different. 3LAU, pronounced “Blau,” is the title name of Justin Blau, a young producer and mashup artist known for his remixes of Top 40 tracks. His performance occupied that critical final hour of the day, the transition period when Yalies make or break their Spring Fling dreams before moving on to Toad’s. Though his large online following gives credence to the catchiness of his remixes, a critical question remained. 3LAU’s tracks are invigorating enough when blasted through computer speakers, but would his onstage
performance be enough to sustain that Spring Fling high during the later hours, making us forget our tired limbs and parched lips in order to dance some more? The giant mosh pit that formed near the front of stage was enough evidence to suggest the answer: yes. Farther away from the stage, the dancing was a little less aggressive, with the rest of the crowd jumping and twisting to the familiar beats of their favorite party music. The tracks were heady as 3LAU took favorite pop tracks like Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Otherside” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and blended them with new sounds. His remixing did not contain any surprises, but it did take the music we already love to brand new levels. In a way, 3LAU’s whole performance felt like party-masturbation, allowing us to drink in pleasurable tunes that had been amplified, their appeal becoming even more overwhelming and visceral. Not exactly the type of music esteemed by the intelligentsia, but for college kids looking for an excuse to dance in a sweaty heap, it did the job.
Though 3LAU’s dancing and bouncing throughout the set kept the audience engaged, there were some moments when he and his table set-up looked small. The neon light and fog show was not enough to prevent him from looking swallowed up by the stage. Unlike other musical performances, the audience sometimes lacked a clear visual anchor on which to pin its energy. But luckily he fed the energy in another way. He had a natural intuition about the audience, expertly using his beats to control the crowd. In each of his remixes, he created a taut suspense, waiting until the last moment to hit the crowd with his most potent sounds. The highest highs were reached during the mashup “Set Fire,” a visceral, urgent twist on Adele’s beloved pipes. During this track especially, Spring Fling dreams, previously disappointed by underwhelming performances of T-Pain and Passion Pit, were fulfilled, the audience turning into a wild, flailing tangle of arms and bobbing heads. Some may protest that 3LAU’s music is only an unapologetic
// FLORIAN KOENIGSBERGER
Just what the doctor ordered for college kids looking to dance in a sweaty heap.
pandering to catchy, poppy, superficially appealing tunes. This may all be true, but to the people who were dancing under drunken veneers, his remixes had the perfect mix of new and old. The music itself was not lifechanging enough so for audience members to pinpoint a single incredible moment, but as a whole, the performance was a good climax for the insanity of the day. Forget talk of musi-
cal innovation or complex chord progression to savor — music for Spring Fling only needs to be good in the moment. 3LAU was conducive to unselfconscious dancing, and, in the end, that was all anyone cared about. Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .
PAGE B2
WEEKEND SPRING
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE B3
FLING
A POET IS BORN, AND IT’S A BIT T-PAINFUL // BY BRAD TRAVIS
Driveby Live Passion // BY DEVIKA MITTAL
PASSION PIT T-PAIN
// FLORIAN KOENIGSBERGER
T-Pain wants to buy you a drink.
Before you read this article, be forewarned: prior to my admission to Yale, the only concerts I regularly attended occurred not in stadiums, but in opera houses and symphony halls. You might call mine a different (read: bizarre) childhood. Nonetheless, I have managed to enjoy myself thoroughly in the sweaty throngs of the last three Spring Flings. This year’s festivities, as I’m sure you’ll agree, were quite something. That the weather cooperated was nothing short of a miracle. Better still, no Yalie could ignore the sheer joy that captured the crowd as Passion Pit finally launched into “Little Secrets” (but actually, who doesn’t like that song?). But the true spectacle of the day belonged to none other than the king of Auto-Tune himself. Though I can’t fathom what exactly my classmates might have expected of T-Pain, I must confess that seeing the man in the flesh was rather disorienting. You see, ever since I first heard his 2007 hit “Buy U a Drank,” I have thought of T-Pain not as Faheem Rasheed Najm (yes, that’s his real name), but rather as a grillsporting robot voice clad in some seriously dope shades. You can imagine my surprise when he swaggered onto the stage wearing a Yale zip-up and T-shirt ensemble. For all my musical narrow-mindedness, I caught myself delighting in the computerized waves of sound that churned through Old Campus. This was especially surprising given that I still don’t know all the lyrics to “Get Low”; I almost felt guilty. But as the set wore on, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being duped. As far as I could tell, much of the singing — perhaps shouting is a better term — came not from T-Pain, but from his sidekick, DJ Lil Boy. At points, I caught myself staring at the onstage dancers, unaware of the particular song blasting in my ears. Yet more dubious was the possibility that T-Pain was merely lipsyncing while his entourage did the real work. While turning these thoughts over in my head, it hit me that I was thinking much too hard. I had missed the point: with T-Pain, what you see (or hear?) is what you get. After all, I couldn’t very well expect an artist who has essentially built his career on clever applications of tuning software to deliver a knockout live performance. He gave us not just what we wanted, but what we
expected; Lord knows we Yalies love being right. I doubt anyone turned up sincerely hoping that T-Pain might, God forbid, reinvent his musical style on the spot. But let’s be serious, even an impromptu Celine Dion cover would have proved less bizarre than what happened near the end of the set. Apparently seized by his creative muse, T-Pain delivered unto us his very own Sermon on the Mount, which I have taken the liberty of titling “Me Time.” Fortunately, thanks to a little voice in my head, I caught the whole thing on my iPhone. You see, contrary to popular belief, T-Pain is not some talentless lyric-writing sidekick. In fact, he has penned numerous successful hits, securing several Grammys along the way. In his own eyes, though, T-Pain is tired of playing pinch hitter for your favorite rappers. No, “this year, it’s all about T-Pain.” Now that I’ve watched the video over again, what tumbled out of his mouth amounts to not just a self-congratulating monologue, but an outright challenge to his haters. Believe me, I’d love to relate here some of the things he said last night, but I fear T-Pain’s words might not jive quite the same way in print (that is, offend most everyone in some way). Just take my word for it that some of the tamer lines would have made even Charlie Sheen wince. But what puzzled me more than the vulgarity and randomness of T-Pain’s aside was the reaction of the crowd, myself included. Come to think of it, the tone of his lengthy freestyle was not much different than that of the bulk of his work (most of which features certain words starting with “p” and “n,” if you get my drift). Essentially, T-Pain surprised us by doing what no one was really expecting: he talked. Did we suddenly become better listeners, or perhaps more sensitive, when he stepped down from his pedestal of Auto-Tune? I can’t really say. At any rate, it was clear that about four minutes into his spiel, T-Pain had thoroughly confused his audience. What with the uncomfortably silent transitions between songs and the deadliest microphone to grace the Spring Fling stage, T-Pain managed to put on quite a show, if you can call it that. Contact BRAD TRAVIS at bradley.travis@yale.edu .
I’mma Buy U a Backlash // BY JORDI GASSÓ
While you and your biffles lost yourselves, your phones and your selfworth within the mud pit that is Old Campus during Spring Fling, others probably plugged their ears to block out the unwanted noise. As a matter of fact, it should come as no surprise that the arrival of T-Pain last Tuesday ruffled a few feathers. When someone at Yale gets offended, we all know. We are an emphatic bunch — sometimes irascible, sometimes dogmatic, sometimes in the right. And for each of the past three Spring Flings, at least one artist selection has set our opinionated cogwheels in motion. These musicians share two points in common: they are rappers, and their lyrics are branded by some as degrading to women. Two years ago, while MGMT’s apathetic performance took everyone and their mothers aback, the Ying Yang Twins had already set some corners of our campus abuzz with disapproval. Despite what were perceived as their misogynistic image, the Spring Fling committee at the time described them as an “unbeatable option” and stressed that their selection did not represent an endorsement of their lyrics’ message. Still, in protest to this choice, an alternate concert was held in the Trumbull courtyard on the day of Spring Fling, where student groups played amid pizza and face painting while the Twins performed on Old Campus. “While we considered a few hip-hop artists who were not offensive, when we evaluated all of the hip-hop artists
solely based on entertainment value and cost, the Ying Yang Twins were clearly the best choice,” the Spring Fling committee wrote in a letter published in the News a week before the event. Even Lupe Fiasco caused some stir last year. “Can you please put your titties closer to the 22s?” he sings in one of his ditties (but at least he asks politely). The outcry was minimal, the show went on and the crowd still sang along to “Superstar.” Many obstacles seem clear during the artist selection process. It is tough to find a mainstream, affordable rapper who is not somewhat offensive, and the powers that be obviously place more emphasis on finding an artist that the majority of Yalies will enjoy. That said, the assertive words of Kathleen Powers ’12 (who’s written two opinion pieces opposing two different Spring Fling musician choices) make a valid point: “Events like the Ying Yang Twins’ performance, DKE’s parade and T-Pain’s impending arrival have a common source,” she wrote last week. “Our culture deems this rhetoric acceptable.” Now T-Pain has come up and left the stage following a similar backlash to the one in 2010. However, no protest events were held as an alternative, and as of Wednesday night, there have been no confirmed accounts of Yale women actually taking their mothereffing shirts off when T-Pain lyrically commanded them to do so. “With T-Pain, the number of people
who were excited to see him far exceeds the handful of people who were upset because they find his music offensive,” said Emily Yin ’13, marketing vice president for last year’s Spring Fling committee. Yin then points to the Spring Fling survey sent to student months prior to the concert. As a former member of the committee, she said, what students say they want is very influential. The committee looks through the artists that ranked the highest on the survey, excludes those that would not fit the budget, and then attempts to pick the acts that would actually perform well live and muster a crowd, she explained. In essence, if students didn’t like T-Pain, the committee wouldn’t have voted in favor of T-Pain. It’s not as if the committee never considers an artist’s reputation. A year prior to the Ying Yang Twins’ performance, the committee decided against pursuing hip-hop artist Akon in spite of his popularity among students, because of his music’s misogynistic message (“Smack that till you get sore,” “But you already know, I wanna f--- you,” and his list of offenses continues.) All in all, most Yalies interviewed don’t necessarily see a trade-off between talent and offensiveness. “It’s important that we balance our desire for big headliners with our other values as a community,” Jaya Wen ’12 said. “It is true that the very act of paying an artist to visit our campus and perform for our student body is an act
I’m going to be honest here; before the Spring Fling line up was released, I had never heard of Passion Pit. It’s possible that I’m not indie enough (shameless fan of now-mainstream Gotye) but I’d like to think that’s not the case. Listening to their songs on YouTube made them seem like every other well-educated, takethemselves-too-seriously, offbeat band. However, I’m glad to say that I changed my opinion after watching them live. Arguably the best performance of the day, Passion Pit brought a certain flavor of authenticity and a raw emotion that Yalies were seen to enjoy more than the mechanised sounds and lip synching of T-Pain. Bursting forth with energy, the members of the electropop band jumped around on stage, encouraging the crowd to sway and lose themselves to the music. Having experienced the show from seven feet above the ground (literally — by being placed on someone’s shoulders), it was clear to me that Passion Pit’s set was enjoyed by most of the concert goers present on Old Campus. Following on the heels of undergraduate Yalie opening acts, their performance started off a little lackluster and lethargic — probably due to the restlessness and inattentiveness of the crowd. But all that changed soon after. From above, watching the crowd was like watching a mass of sluggish sea creatures experiencing a common electric shock and suddenly buzzing to life together. Although there weren’t many screaming fans hyperventilating or asking for autographs, people were seen enjoying the music by linking arms, pumping up and down, and even slow dancing to their own beat. Deriving their name from a slang term for drive-in theaters, the band’s music evokes the same sense of “romantic allure and privacy” that their name conjures up. Starting off with some rather typically indie songs, they soon moved on to their more distinctive and popular music. The band played many of the tracks off their album “Manners,” which features their best songs. It’s a shame that most of the crowd was too busy appreciating the sweet, honeylike quality of lead singer Michael Angelakos’ voice to pick up on the varied, velvet layers of the songs. However, as Shreya Ghei ’15 said,
of endorsement.” And while the committee’s main concern is to bring artists that can get students riled up about the event, Ifeanyi Awachie ’14 said Spring Fling does not have to be a showcase of artists who are already popular, but an opportunity for students to discover new music. For as Powers and Wen suggest, our excitement and student activities fees are both being offered to the artists we bring for Spring Fling. If our voice is what truly counts, as the committee has stated time and time again, then maybe the survey sent out to the student body should include explicit questions about selection criteria and not just an extensive inventory of artists, as proposed by Matthew Shafer ’13 in an interview. “This would allow student opinion about the importance (or non-importance) of artistic politics and ethics to be reflected, even if they aren’t familiar with the content of the lyrics of every artist on the long list that’s sent out,” Shafer said. This week, a mighty portion of campus was on an effing boat with T-Pain in exhilaration and drunken haze. Come next year, unless we can reach a consensus on how to follow up on his act, we will always come across a handful of Yalies jumping off the Spring Fling ship in protest. Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jmgj11@gmail.com .
“They were unique. More importantly, they were so much better than T- Pain!” The band ended their set with “Little Secrets,” the perfect conclusion to an amazing performance. For the stereotypical Yalie — garbed in neon Wayfarers matching neon pants — Passion Pit’s mix of mellow and stimulating songs was entirely fitting. Yes, like every other alternative band, Passion Pit croons about being hurt, being lovers, having feelings in general and feeling alive, but
Before Toad’s, 3LAU keeps party on Old Campus
that’s okay. Their music is an apt background to our memories of Tuesday’s events, whether seen from high up in the air or with faces pressed onto the soil or into the bushes. It is befitting of the stage set forth by Spring Fling, where bodies and sweat mingle with nostalgia, despair, hope and the coy promises of more to come.
// EARL LEE
Oh Michael Angelakos, serenade us with your honeyed voice.
Contact DEVIKA MITTAL at devika.mittal@yale.edu .
3LAU
// BY JOY SHAN
When it comes to music, my taste lacks nuance. My analysis of live performances follows a simple flowchart. Does the concert move me to tears (example: Jeff Mangum performing solo at the Shubert earlier this semester)? And if not, does it make me want to drop everything and dance until I’m dizzy? If I cannot answer “yes” to either of these questions, I will deem the act unworthy of the effort it takes to see it live (even if the show takes place in my own backyard). Like I said, unnuanced. And my criteria for Spring Fling is no different. 3LAU, pronounced “Blau,” is the title name of Justin Blau, a young producer and mashup artist known for his remixes of Top 40 tracks. His performance occupied that critical final hour of the day, the transition period when Yalies make or break their Spring Fling dreams before moving on to Toad’s. Though his large online following gives credence to the catchiness of his remixes, a critical question remained. 3LAU’s tracks are invigorating enough when blasted through computer speakers, but would his onstage
performance be enough to sustain that Spring Fling high during the later hours, making us forget our tired limbs and parched lips in order to dance some more? The giant mosh pit that formed near the front of stage was enough evidence to suggest the answer: yes. Farther away from the stage, the dancing was a little less aggressive, with the rest of the crowd jumping and twisting to the familiar beats of their favorite party music. The tracks were heady as 3LAU took favorite pop tracks like Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Otherside” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and blended them with new sounds. His remixing did not contain any surprises, but it did take the music we already love to brand new levels. In a way, 3LAU’s whole performance felt like party-masturbation, allowing us to drink in pleasurable tunes that had been amplified, their appeal becoming even more overwhelming and visceral. Not exactly the type of music esteemed by the intelligentsia, but for college kids looking for an excuse to dance in a sweaty heap, it did the job.
Though 3LAU’s dancing and bouncing throughout the set kept the audience engaged, there were some moments when he and his table set-up looked small. The neon light and fog show was not enough to prevent him from looking swallowed up by the stage. Unlike other musical performances, the audience sometimes lacked a clear visual anchor on which to pin its energy. But luckily he fed the energy in another way. He had a natural intuition about the audience, expertly using his beats to control the crowd. In each of his remixes, he created a taut suspense, waiting until the last moment to hit the crowd with his most potent sounds. The highest highs were reached during the mashup “Set Fire,” a visceral, urgent twist on Adele’s beloved pipes. During this track especially, Spring Fling dreams, previously disappointed by underwhelming performances of T-Pain and Passion Pit, were fulfilled, the audience turning into a wild, flailing tangle of arms and bobbing heads. Some may protest that 3LAU’s music is only an unapologetic
// FLORIAN KOENIGSBERGER
Just what the doctor ordered for college kids looking to dance in a sweaty heap.
pandering to catchy, poppy, superficially appealing tunes. This may all be true, but to the people who were dancing under drunken veneers, his remixes had the perfect mix of new and old. The music itself was not lifechanging enough so for audience members to pinpoint a single incredible moment, but as a whole, the performance was a good climax for the insanity of the day. Forget talk of musi-
cal innovation or complex chord progression to savor — music for Spring Fling only needs to be good in the moment. 3LAU was conducive to unselfconscious dancing, and, in the end, that was all anyone cared about. Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
WEEKEND BACKSTAGE
Breathe, Dummy // BY NATALIE WOLFF
Shorty, take your shirt off
Muddy mosh turning into a passion pit Accidentally sexual in an effort not to get hit Sorry girl, I didn’t mean to grope you there Avoiding falling, that’s all, I swear. If you get trapped, climb out over the top T-Pain tells sexy people “take your shirts off!” Self-aware enough not to remove his own Lip-synching out of time with the microphone Sweatshirts coming off like the Saybrook strip Trying to get low but all I do is trip Mysteries, like where’d he get the Yale gear? Did he just forget the words? How’d he get invited here? Kind of looks like an overgrown muppet Entourage dances like strings on a puppet His set’s a fiasco and not like Lupe Was Lonely Island available today? Cigars, sweat, try to breathe, don’t inhale Too many bodies and the air’s getting stale Last song! The pit finally starts to clear. Oh well. Same time, same place, next year? Contact NATALIE WOLFF at natalie.wolff@yale.edu .
// BY AARON GERTLER
Spring Fling observations: Michael Angelakos is a real person with a real throat. How does he not fall over dead in the middle of “Sleepyhead”? Drunken college students singing choruses meant for children’s choirs must be the sound that haunts Passion Pit’s dreams. When you throw t-shirts into the audience and then play “Take Your Shirt Off,” you end up right back where you started. What was T-Pain’s childhood dream? Is he living it? “I fucked a mermaid!” was by far the most sung-along-to lyric of the night. Had 3LAU stopped messing around with his knobs and played the actual chorus of “Call Me Maybe” for us, that would have been the best moment of Spring Fling. He did not.
Sway // BY YANAN WANG As I swayed to the tangy tunes of Little Secrets, swayed with the sea of limbs around me, I imagined myself reflected in Ayad Al Adhamy’s glasses. I couldn’t actually see him because I was too short and the sea of limbs was too wide, but I thought that if I had seen him and he had seen me, we would have shared a moment through the smoke and rain.
Contact AARON GERTLER at aaron.gertler@yale.edu .
Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .
On some far away beach // BY JORDI GASSÓ
On Tuesday I wore headphones all day so I didn’t have to listen to my crying. I wasn’t on campus for Spring Fling. I only alternated between Natalie Imbruglia and the Sex Pistols, and it felt fine. Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jmgj11@gmail.com .
// JACOB GEIGER, FLORIAN KOENIGSBERGER, NANCY XIA
Sleepyheadz // BY TAOTAO HOLMES
Spring Fling is one of many pithy, loaded entries in the Yale dictionary. Bulldog Days, Camp Yale, Harvard-Yale, Freshman Screw, Reading Period, DKE. What ties them all together is the fact that their definitions never match their realities. For all the fuss over which artists we bring and what pinnies we buy, who actually makes it to the concert? Or stays? Spring Fling is an excuse to be the most pitiable, dysfunctional individual for a glorious 24-hour period. Your Wednesday self is generally a little less than appalled by its comportment the day before, but by Wednesday there is nothing much to do about it except decide to plan better for next year (when you will, of course, fail again). To those Spring Fling all-
stars who make it to Toad’s: you have the inhuman endurance of a rhinoceros. To the rest of us: perhaps Spring Fling is really just an implement of the administration to bolster our sleep before finals week. In conjunction with an afternoon nap, I was in bed by 10 p.m. I think it’s fair to say that of all days in the school year, Spring Fling is the only one that successfully promotes (and achieves) a campuswide bedtime earlier than midnight. So when I think of Spring Fling? If you look it up, I think you might discover that one of its synonyms — rather than Rage, Party, and Concert — is in fact, just, Sleep. Contact TAO TAO HOLMES at taotao.holmes@yale.edu .
Spring has sprung // BY FAHEEM RASHEED NAJM
Dawg She Got Me...[at the Fling] Got me doin things I’ll never do If u ain’t been I’m tellin you I’m Sprung … (I’m Sprung) Contact FAHEEM RASHEED NAJM at faheem.rasheed@autotuneU.edu .