The Friday night Goo Goo Dolls concert was the first rock concert for a nameless (for her own protection) friend of mine as well as for me. I'm not a particularly big fan of the Goo Goo Dolls, but I thought that if I ever went to a rock concert, it ought to be one that was so conveniently located and priced. It's not that I'm against rock but, I like it at a low volume and knew in advance a concert wasn't going to be the optimal listening experience for me.
Yet, the way it worked out, the crowd was much more controlled (and smaller) than I expected. Perhaps I'd just heard greatly exaggerated concert stories, but I expected more. In contrast, my friend was angry afterwards. She pointed out that everyone could have heard more and been a lot cooler if we had all just sat down. Also, those around 5'2," her height, might have been able to see.
I was actually disappointed for the reverse reason. I'd expected the concert to be a fantastic people watching event, but I felt like overall the students showed little genuine enthusiasm other than what was called for by concert convention.
First example, consider the privileged USG officers. They sat atop in a balcony of sorts to the left of the crowd, apart from the mob. I don't take issue with their privileged seating, as I suppose it is the closest they get to political graft for all the busywork of pretending to make themselves useful that I suspect comprises most of the efforts of organizational organizations. Any time I glanced at them during the performance, they were quiet, almost bored. More often than not at least half were resting their heads rather than cheering or singing along. Was there not a single Goo Goo Dolls fan in the entire USG?
The mob itself, too, was pretty calm, at least compared to my wild expectations. My guest was my cousin who attended the University of Buffalo. She was surprised even at the start. "If this were UB, everyone would be drunk," she said. I guess she didn't know the rules.
It was Friday night. Convention has, I suppose for some time, perhaps before even the time of our parents, dictated that excessive alcohol consumption be limited strictly to Thursdays and Saturdays, except for special occasions. It simply would have been unseemly to do otherwise. "They've got to do homework after the concert," I told her. It was all a matter of convenience and convention.
Similarly, when the band stopped playing the first time, I suppose enough students had been to concerts to know it was convention to insist the band come out again to keep playing. They knew what to expect, knew what their role was, and fulfilled it perfectly as the adept overachievers we all are. Yet, when the band stopped the second time and the lights came on, everyone departed quietly. There wasn't even a small rebellious contingent that demanded more Goo Goo Dolls. Instead, students purchased T-shirts on the way out and milled outside the entrance looking for friends.
Not to say I'm in favor of rebellion without a cause. I'm not in favor of rebelling against things that make sense. Yet, I find it worrying how easily Princeton students seem to accept all the precepts handed down by their parents and societal convention in general. The more I see, the more I think David Brooks was right. One particularly frightening example is how many people reportedly attended Brooks's talk on Thursday night.
The first part of the title of his talk was, "Your Souls." How could so many people have the time of day for someone who presumed to tell them about their souls? Their need for outside applause and the need to be approved were glaring in the high rate of attendance for such a talk, without any reported passionate confrontation of Brooks for such judgments.
I guess my primary annoyance is that you can't have it both ways. To me, the whole paradox was embodied by students who were crowd surfing at the concert in khakis, loafers and button-down shirts. Ya'll want everything. You want to be part of a system that rewards you so well for excelling and conforming, without having to give up the "coolness" of rebellion and meaningless irresponsibility. Aileen Nielsen is a sophomore from Upper Black Eddy, Pa. She can be reached at anielsen@princeton.edu.
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