Twins, Carlton attract record concert crowd"Playas," piano and Puerto Rico drew record attendance in a hit concert filled with diverse musical tastes, ranging from club-hopping rap to emotional ballads at the SUAAB Big Concert April 13 in the Activity Center (AC).
"Ying Yang Twins and Vanessa Carlton over LL Cool J," said Carl Hale, an education junior, referring to the new lineup that replaced LL Cool J, who was originally slated to perform. "His last album sucked."
The four-hour concert, which featured rap duo Ying Yang Twins, singer/pianist Vanessa Carlton and Latino singer Jorge Moreno, was attended by 1,912 people. The crowd was the largest event attendance in SUAAB history, according to officials.
"I think we really outdid ourselves," SUAAB Advisor Stella Mulberry said.
The show concluded with a self-described "house party" by the Twins, D-Roc and Kaine. The finale drew the biggest response of the night, persuading students to leave the stands and dance to hit songs "Get Low" and "Whistle While You Twurk."
"The Ying Yang Twins actually got the crowd going," said software engineering junior Keni Adebiyi. "That's the key to any concert."
Tony Poff, a criminal justice studies freshman, disagreed.
"Why did I stay? Because my tuition paid for it," Poff said.
Chanting "Ying Yang!" repeatedly, several hundred students were spotted body surfing, sitting atop each others shoulders, waving their arms to the fast-paced music and screaming for D-Roc to throw them his towel. He obliged.
"Give them something to remember me by," D-Roc said afterwards, flashing a golden grin.
Carlton took a different approach, singing solo while playing the piano. In her "living room" she talked to the audience between songs.
Carlton spoke of her love for vampires, voiced her frustration with MTV and VH1's censorship of her video "White Houses" and made a tribute to a fan in attendance who had survived a life-threatening disease.
Carlton also inferred her support of gay marriage, which she later confirmed.
"This song is for (those of you) ... in a relationship that (isn't) approved of, either by your mother - or the government," she said, before launching into a ballad that reiterated the message.
Carlton's candidness struck a chord with Jessica Kalanche.
"She seems down to earth by the way she was talking to us," said Kalanche, a freshman arts & technology major.
Preceding Carlton, Jorge Moreno, the opening performance, played up-tempo music with Latino flair, inviting several female audience members to dance onstage for one song.
"They rock. I'm Puerto Rican, so I like this kind of music," said Stephanie Rivera, who salsa danced in the crowd. Rivera, a senior at Plano Senior High School, attended with a UTD friend.
But the diversity of the lineup wasn't lost on concert attendees - or the performers.
"This is one of the strangest shows I think we've played," Moreno said. "Just us three together is very odd."
Students echoed his sentiments.
"You can dance to Ying Yang. You can't dance to Vanessa Carlton unless you've got someone special," said John Boyd, an undeclared freshman.
Nevertheless, performers gave positive feedback about the show.
"I think it went great," Kaine said.
Carlton echoed their sentiments.
"I don't get to Dallas very often," she said. "They seem like a fun crowd."
Cameramen videotaped and projected students' and performers' images onto two screens set up on each side of the Main Gym. Local radio host DJ Merritt played music in between the acts, while colored lasers swirled around the room.
The show was organized in approximately three weeks, according to SUAAB officials.
"Publicity was of concern to us," Mulberry said. "We didn't know if we could get the word out to students in enough time." She added SUAAB tried targeting groups of students at university events rather than blanketing the campus with fliers, as was the case with previous events.
The preliminary final budget was estimated at $88,950, which was an increase from the previous sum of $85,000. The extra funds were available because SUAAB's Big Comedy Night featuring Jamie Kennedy came in under budget, according to SUAAB officials.
http://www.theutdmercury.com/news/2005/04/18/News/Twins.Carlton.Attract.Record.Concert.Crowd-927707.shtml
