From jamming to R.E.M in the hockey rink to Phish on the dining hall menu, visiting musicians have long transformed spaces at the College into unexpected stages. With Snow Strippers set to perform at All Campus Entertainment’s Spring Fling this year, the Record looks back at the history of concerts on campus.

The Velvet Underground: Feb. 18, 1967, Baxter Basement

Andy Warhol’s multimedia project “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” included a combination of live performances by The Velvet Underground, a band that blended rock with avant-garde influences, alongside Warhol’s films. Typically in the art series, German singer Nico joined the group; she was not present at the College’s show.

The performance was included in that year’s Winter Carnival and was met with mixed reviews, largely due to Nico’s absence. In an interview with the Record, one student said the performance was “a degenerate, Bacchanalic debauchery … but that’s all right because that’s what it was supposed to be.”

R.E.M.: May 4, 1985 at Lansing Chapman Rink

R.E.M. opened their summer tour in the College’s Lansing Chapman Rink. Their tour aimed to promote their upcoming album, Fables of the Reconstruction. At the time, the band had already received critical acclaim for its 1983 album Murmur and its 1984 album Reckoning, but wouldn’t enjoy global popularity until several years later.

The Record published an interview with the band at the time, in which drummer Bill Berry and bassist Mike Mills described their experience being on the cusp of mainstream success.

“Commercial success is not going to happen until we have a hit single,” Berry said. “[Fables of the Reconstruction] is not unlike [Murmur and Reckoning] in that there’s no real obvious hit singles.”

Berry also described the band’s plans for its trajectory. “We put more pride into the making of an entire record rather than a song, and it’s paid off for us,” Berry said. “Our success has been slow, but it actually has the impetus now where if we would put out a bad record, our careers are going to end.”

Mills added that he didn’t view producing a hit single as all-important, and emphasized the value of musical integrity. “There’s no way to [predict success],” he said. “I don’t really care. As far as I’m concerned, having a hit is irrelevant to anything else.”

In 1991, R.E.M. would release their global hit single, “Losing My Religion” on their album Out of Time. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over 4 million copies in the U.S., and currently has almost 2 billion listens on Spotify.

Ramones: April 20, 1987 at Lansing Chapman Rink

Just two years after the sound of R.E.M. reverberated across the cavernous Lansing Chapman Rink, the Student Activities Council brought the Ramones to campus for another concert at the rink. For the honor of the band’s presence, the Student Activities Council paid a fee of $8,000.

In a Record article released before the concert, organizer Matt LaPointe ’88 called the group “the originators of American punk,” describing their sound as “raw and raunchy rock-and-roll.” The Record reported that the band was dressed in their classic look of black leather jackets and stepped on stage through a cloud of smoke. Though only 500 students attended, they caused plenty of chaos. 

According to the Record, at one point in the concert, the crowd reportedly pushed and broke “the flimsy wooden barriers” at the front of the stage and erupted into “a frenzy of slamdancing.”

With the absence of the barricades, members of the band were “pummeled by slamdancing fans, and more than one dancer was thrown off of the dance floor by security and police,” according to the Record. Things calmed after the interference of campus security, and the group began dancing about fifteen feet away from the band.

Despite the aggressive movements of the crowd, the Record noted that the “general mood was amazingly positive” and concertgoers helped one another up amid the disorder.

The band played one set and two encores, starting with a double tempo rendition of their song “Blitzkrieg Bop.” According to the Record, they paused only long enough after each song “to count off the next in a frenzied ‘onetwothreefour.’”

Phish: Nov. 9, 1989, at Mission Dining Hall

Phish performed in Mission Dining Hall as a part of a bash hosted by the Student Activities Council, a predecessor to ACE. The Vermont-based band was still years from reaching national popularity and was in a period of building a grassroots following through relentless touring.

The Record described the band as “a real sensation whose live shows transcend ordinary musical experience.”

A complete audio recording of their Mission performance can be found online. On the group’s setlist were early originals like “Golgi Apparatus” and “The Lizards,” which would appear on their 1992 album A Picture of Nectar, as well as staples like “You Enjoy Myself,” released in 1985, and “Mike’s Song,” which would be officially released a few years later. Phish ended its set with a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

At one point during the concert, frontman Trey Anastasio thanked the raucous student audience for missing the keg party in the other room. “This is more fun,” he said.

Indigo Girls: April 26, 1991 at Lasell Gymnasium

When the Indigo Girls performed in Lasell Gymnasium for a crowd of 1,000 people, they had already broken into the mainstream with their eponymous second album Indigo Girls, which was released in 1989 and included their most commercially-successful song, “Closer to Fine.” At the time, they were on a short tour, which included stops in Poughkeepsie and Rochester, N.Y.

The first part of the set mainly featured tunes from their album Nomads Indians Saints, which was released in 1990, the year before their visit to the College. The duo then moved on to more well-known songs from Indigo Girls, including “Closer to Fine.”

The Record reported that the Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, “seemed to have a lot of fun on stage, joking and talking with members of the audience and maintaining an open and casual attitude.”

In a 1991 interview with the Record, Saliers described her love for the College’s mascot, Ephelia. “[Cows] are my favorite animals,” Saliers said. “They’re so sweet — they just stand there and chew their cud and walk around and look at things. It’s a good life.”

Honorable Mention: Billy Joel Talk in Chapin Hall, 1992

Although it was not an official concert, Billy Joel visited the College on May 15, 1992, giving a talk called “Words on Music,” during which he did perform some of his famous songs, including “Piano Man” and “Honesty.”

Joel also gave some advice to the 1992 graduating class that may still ring true today: “If you can’t find a regular job, why don’t you just try following your dreams for a while, because you probably won’t get hired right away.”