God Street Wine band receives mixed reviews at other campuses

God Street Wine – the band that will grace Dillon Gym's makeshift stage to open for the Bosstones at the Spring Concert – landed the big rotten tomato last year at Harvard University's Springfest.

Or maybe it was the Harvard students who were rotten.

In an editorial on Feb. 9, the Harvard Crimson criticized God Street Wine: "Last year's Springfest, featuring the forgettable God Street Wine, was, simply put, god-awful. The Undergraduate Council is currently in the process of planning this year's spring revelry, and we hope they avoid the mistakes of the past," the Crimson said.

As evidenced by the editorial, the problem may not have been God Street Wine, but instead Springfest as a whole.

Harvard junior Justin Lerer, an Undergraduate Council representative, said Harvard students can always find a way not to have fun, even on a nice spring day.

However, God Street Wine has been well accepted at other universities.

When Roger Williams College in Rhode Island hosted God Street Wine, the students "really liked it," Roger Williams junior Andrew Firmin said.

About 200 to 300 people attended the concert – a typical crowd for the college – and "people seemed to be enjoying themselves," he said.

Marketing representative for Mercury Records Susan Wyler expects Princeton students to enjoy God Street Wine's performance. "If you have students who are big Blues Traveler fans, they'll like God Street Wine," she said. "They do a great show live. . . . They have the Horde Festival sound."

Princeton USG social chair Jeff Leven '00 said he expects God Street Wine to be well-received. "I think (students are) going to love them. I've seen them live. They're a really audience-oriented band," Leven said. "They're a lot of fun to listen to."

"They've got the same fan following as Phish and . . . Grateful Dead-style bands," he added.

Harvard junior Rachel Weber saw God Street Wine last year.

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"I saw them in 11th grade, and I kind of associate them with 11th grade girls," she said. "(Their Springfest Show) was a low-energy kind of show. I think they were down about playing to so few people. A lot of people didn't know who they were."

The concert's problems, however, cannot be fully attributed to the band, she added. "I think that a good show involves both the band and the people there. . . . They're not inherently a bad band, but they are not inherently a great band. They can be enjoyable in the right setting," she explained.

Lerer said he enjoyed the concert because "personally, I've heard of God Street Wine and I like them."

On the whole, though, "the (Harvard) campus was somewhere between apathetic and disappointed," Lerer said. A poll last spring revealed that students ranked God Street Wine last out of five bands, according to a March 3, 1997 Crimson article.

Since God Street Wine was the only band available, Harvard had to settle for it, Lerer said.

Despite lack of student interest, Lerer said students were generally respectful. "(Harvard students) are pretty civil for people who perform for us in one way or another," he said.

Outdoor concert

Though Harvard students were not necessarily excited about God Street Wine, Springfest may be different enough from Princeton's Spring Concert to make the band less foreboding for this University.

Springfest is held outside on a field and students do not pay for tickets, Lerer said. "No one would have shown up if they charged money," he added.

Furthermore, attendance may have been low due to weak publicity for Springfest, according to the Crimson editorial. "Improve publicity," the article demanded in a laundry list of complaints about the festival.

"Last year, the council's postering effort was pathetic. In the day leading up to Springfest, not a single student on this campus should be able to walk 10 feet without seeing an advertisement," the editorial said. "Not everyone will show up, but at the very least, everyone should know about it."

Harvard sophomore Moses Bloom said he did not attend the concert. "I didn't know they came. (God Street Wine's appearance) doesn't sound like something a lot of people would know about."

Lerer described God Street Wine's music as "pretty catchy and unobjectionable. . . . At every campus, there will be big fans and they'll go and it will be the defining moment in their lives," he said. "The average person will probably be like, 'Bring on the Bosstones. Who are these people?' "