The recent announcement of this fall semester’s concert choice of Dashboard Confessional and Brand New has students buzzing about whether or not this show is going to be the right fit for the current state of Binghamton University’s musical taste buds. Just for the sake of the University Programming Board’s concert budget, everyone is probably hoping this show will be more lucrative than last year’s Ludacris concert, which left the Events Center half empty (or half full, if you want to be optimistic about it). Choosing the right band for a big show is a delicate balance of budgets, tastes, timing and hopefully a bit of luck. Come Dec. 7, the UPB will find out how well their chosen artists will fare with the skeptical student body of BU.

Instead of waiting to see how ticket sales go, we at Release decided to go straight to the proverbial horse’s mouth — the student body — and ask your fellow Bearcats if they predict success for this December’s show, or if they think the UPB has missed the boat.

From what we’ve heard, it looks like the UPB might still be having some trouble selecting artists to perform on campus that capture the interest of enough students. But the age-old balancing act of choosing a popular performer continues to beg the question: how many is enough? Because it is blatantly obvious that no campus is homogeneous enough to agree on one artist, it’s inevitable that we have to compromise.

Some of the bands that students said they are most interested in seeing included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, Panic! At the Disco, Coldplay, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jack Johnson, U2 and Jay-Z — not surprisingly, these bands also carry huge price tags. Sandra Dube, vice president for University Programming, said that she actually did put in a bid for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but the cost was way too steep for the UPB’s concert budget. “What they wanted was two times what we bid,” she said. “Of course you want them” she added, “but we can’t guarantee them a certain amount of money without knowing what we’ll get from ticket sales.”

What some students don’t know is that bands like the Chilli Peppers are rumored to go for around half a million dollars. The Student Association allocated a concert budget of $85,000 for the 2006-2007 year, but after last year’s debt was deducted, UPB was left with $35,311.75 (to be exact) to work with this year, Dube said.

Dube also said she put in bids for Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart, which were “comparable” to what she is dishing out for Dashboard and Brand New, but they were not accepted.

Several of the students we interviewed said that the maximum they would pay for this upcoming concert is $10 or less, while a smaller percent said they would pay up to $20. The actual cost of tickets will be $20 for students and $27 for non-students.

Out of a group of about 30 students, only a handful seemed genuinely excited about the concert. Sophomore Brett Schwartz felt that this duo might be a good change from last year.

“I think Binghamton has to make up for a lousy ’05-’06 season,” he said. Schwartz thinks Dashboard and Brand New might be able to accomplish this.

Unlike Schwartz however, who felt that they would be “a healthy alternative” to the Ludacris concert, several other students felt that the music was too “emo,” a genre which some say only appeals to a narrow audience.

Sophomore Kevin Kleiman was one of these students. “I don’t agree with the choice financially. I believe this genre of music doesn’t appeal to enough people to be very successful.”

But not everyone thinks the emo stigma Dashboard carries is a negative thing for BU’s concert budget. In fact, some say this type of music appeals to the struggles and emotions that are typical of college life.

“I dont know what these bands say about our culture, but music expresses emotion and it’s nice to have something to help you express how you’re feeling at a particular time,” said senior human development major Jeff Mastin.

Students like Kleiman bring up the fact that other SUNYs such as Buffalo and Albany seem to host artists with a “wider appeal.”

“Kayne West performed at Buffalo for a similar event and it turned out to be very successful because it appealed to all types of different students on campus,” he said.

But what some students may not realize is the fact that not attending the concerts UPB hosts has a direct effect on future concerts and, more importantly, the future of our concert budget.

Perhaps students like Max Loehrke, a junior philosophy, politics and law major, have the right idea about getting the most out of the BU concert scene.

“I’m not particularly interested in either of these bands, but if it’s a good price, I might as well just go to check it out anyway,” Loehrke said.

But if you are still unsatisfied, there are always off-campus venues and smaller shows throughout the year. The best tools we students have are our voices and our wallets. Let the Student Association know what you want to hear and buy a ticket so the budget doesn’t bottom out.