Sept. 3, 2014

By Alexandria Zamecnik

By Emily Leclair

After the audience listened to a professional drumline from Madison, Wis. and forty minutes of bass-bumping mashups, B.o.B finally stepped on to the stage at 9:40 p.m. on Sept. 2.

B.o.B kicked off the show with “Ready” and brought down the house with “We Still In This B****” during a final encore.

The encore was brought on after students cheered for the artist to come back on stage. What B.o.B did was explosive. The hip-hop sensation jumped in the crowd and surfed to the back of the audience, not forgetting to high-five students on the way.

Travis Daul, a Junior, was the first person waiting in line for the concert at 5:30 p.m..

“I’ve never seen B.o.B,” Daul said. “I’ve heard he’s really good, and I wanted to be front row.”

Daul said he had high expectations of B.o.B before the concert.  The Royal Purple  spoke to Daul afterwards. His reaction did not change.

“I thought that it was the best start to the school year I could ask for,” Daul said. “It really got the blood of the students flowing, and it was a great way to say ‘welcome back student’ and welcome ‘freshmen’.”

The concert had been in the works since January of last year when students were given the chance to vote on which artist they would like to see come to campus. After a long elimination process, the winner was finally chosen. B.o.B was coming to UW-W.

Associate Director of Career and Leadership Development, Jan Bilgen, and Director of First Year Experience, Beth John, are behind putting the event together, along with the help of the students, volunteers and the generous organizations on campus who donated the money to make the concert possible.

“I just think that it is so wonderful, to kick off the year,” John said. “Coming and having that shared experience, that campus tradition, connection to campus, it’s wonderful.”

When deciding where to have the concert, the Kachel Fieldhouse was the final decision. Perkins Stadium could have been a potential concert venue, depending on the amount of students who would attend the concert.

“I would love to see where we get to a point where we are so full we have to go to the stadium,” John said.

The price ticket for B.o.B. to perform is in the range of $50 thousand to $65 thousand. The total event is estimated in the $90 thousand range, which also includes the ‘Warhawks At Night’ program in the University Center on Aug. 31, according to a prior Royal Purple article.

“It’s student dollars that were using, so we want to be actively engaged in student opinion,” Bilgen said.

Sarah Vandervest, a freshman, left the concert after three songs with a group of friends.

Many other groups of students could be found leaving early.

Vandervest said she was disappointed because she could not hear or understand the musical artist and  B.o.B did not start when he was supposed to.

“Every three seconds the opener said, ‘Are you ready for B.o.B?’ and he kept going without B.o.B,” Vandervest said.