A limited amount of dates has set the University Board concert committee back.

The committee is still in the process of booking an artist to perform at Eastern this semester.

Ceci Brinker, director of Student Life, said a limited number of dates to choose from for the spring concert is slowing down the concert committee’s process of booking an artist.

She said having several dates gives the artists more options to consider but this year they have less dates then they are accustomed to.

Brinker said there was a lot more going on in Lantz arena this semester than past semesters.

Lantz arena is used as the biggest part of the venue but classrooms are also used.

The spring volleyball season, athletic practices, open-house events, evening and weekend classes all take precedence over the spring concert, which left the committee with a shortage of dates.

“I would probably say the biggest challenge this year has been a limited number of dates,” Brinker said. “Because if you’re trying to go out there and get artists, the more dates you have the more chances you have of getting them.”

Ben Murphy, UB concert coordinator, said the concert committee usually has five or six dates for a Friday or Saturday show but this year they only have two.

The committee asked for additional dates but did not come back with anything ideal, Brinker said.

Their additional options were to have a show on a Sunday or a Thursday, which Brinker said are not the prime dates to have a concert. Brinker said even though student input UB received said students would not be opposed to having a concert on a school night, the concert committee usually tries to stay away from those nights.

The committee is trying to focus on a date in April; however, the only available weekend is the weekend of the 25 and 26, finals weekend.

Murphy said he thinks students would go out and see a show on this weekend but the problem is it is late in the semester.

Brinker said most of the available dates the committee received were in February, which is “too short of a month.” She also said March would have worked but the only available date was Easter weekend.

Brinker said the committee was able to get three additional dates on either Sundays or Thursdays.

Murphy said it’s hard to match up their limited dates with an artist’s schedule.

“By the time late April comes around, (bands) are in the middle of their tour,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to make your way down to Charleston, Ill. for a show when you’re already in the middle of a tour on the east coast or the west coast – or wherever they are.”

Awaiting a response – it’s the business

The concert committee has been hard at work since November looking at possible dates and artists.

However, limited venue availability and slow responses to offers have gotten in the way.

Brinker said the committee put an offer into an artist but four weeks later, they were still awaiting a response.

“You don’t get a quick response simply because you’re interested in somebody and you have the money and you say, ‘We want you to come to our school,'” Brinker said.

Brinker said it’s a “waiting game” for the committee because it is all in the hands of the artist and their management.

“This is the part that students, you know other than the concert students, wouldn’t really understand. In the entertainment industry, we’re on their time,” Brinker said. “It’s not like they (the artist’s management) feel like they’ve got to get back to Eastern Illinois University within a week, within a couple weeks.”

Brinker said the entertainment business is a business, and it does not move as quickly as one would like.

This “waiting game” challenges the patience of the students on the committee, Brinker said.

“There’s a lot of things that we don’t have control over to finalize and lock everything in,” she said. “They understand that but obviously as students their patience is wearing thin. They’re hoping to get a show that people will be happy with.”

Sheila Hurley, UB concert elect, said she gets really impatient with the music business.

“You try and do work that there’s nothing to do,” Hurley said.

She said the constant waiting for information makes her frustrated.

Murphy said he and Hurley do not deal with the band directly so they just have to wait for their agent to get back to them and let them “know what the deal is.”

“It’s really hard to really know what they’re doing especially when you’re not dealing with them on a one-on-one basis. It’s definitely real frustrating,” Murphy said.

A lot of this has to do with the limited dates the committee has to offer.

“We’re doing everything we can to try to speed up the process but there’s a lot of logistics that aren’t working out that usually do – whether it be venue booking, or the talent that’s already booked or gone or not touring or only doing certain areas,” Murphy said.

He said everything that could go wrong did.

Deciding who to bring

The concert committee was looking heavily into bringing Third Eye Blind to campus.

Murphy said before Christmas break the committee had their top choice picked.

“Third Eye Blind got our hopes up for a long time, ” Hurley said.

Recently, Hurley and Murphy found out that Third Eye Blind most likely could not come to Eastern.

Murphy said it was not official yet that the band was not coming because they were still waiting to hear from their agent.

Brinker said the challenge is that the concert committee does not have enough dates in our venue to compete for Third Eye Blind.

“Third Eye Blind is one that we – that students – are still committed to but right now we just don’t have enough flexibility in our scheduling and in our venue to lock them in,” Brinker said.

While waiting for the band’s response, the committee began looking for back-up ideas.

Three groups the committee considered were Ben Folds, Jason Mraz and Lupe Fiasco.

Hurley said they sent out surveys via the concert committee’s group on Facebook to get student input on these three groups.

Then their agent told the committee that Fiasco could not come because he would be touring with Kanye West in April.

Murphy said the committee is now “looking heavily” either Folds or Mraz. Both are affordable, so Murphy said it now just depends on who will sell better and which tour matches up with the available dates.

Folds will be performing at Foellinger Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on April 15.

Mraz will be touring Australia through March.

Murphy said both of theses artists were in the running at the beginning, but now are the only ones that fit into their dates.

“All of these were basically our top choices it’s just when it comes down to it you have to pick,” Murphy said.

He said it is going to be a good show no matter which artist comes.

“I don’t want people to think that because it’s taken a little longer it’s not going to be like the same kind of show that it would have been had we announced it a month earlier,” Murphy said.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

John Rzeznik, lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, performs with his band at Lantz Arena last year during the UB’s spring concert. (File Photo/The Daily Eastern News)

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