![]() ![]() Indeed, when Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band hit the national charts a year or two later, it didn’t surprise Mora Fisher Mattingly ’76. “The music was raw and original, and one sensed a legend emerging.” ![]() We all missed dining hall dinner hours,” says Dave Bayer ’77. “What stands out to me is how much fun that Bruce and the band were having playing with each other,” adds Kate Harper ’77. A rare time when I wish someone had just stolen them.”ĭave Scheiber ’76 remembers “the incredible lyricism, and the full-tilt precision of performance of the E-Street Band that washed over all of us in the Crum. “I assumed everyone knew they were sacred,” he says, “but apparently someone cleaned things up and threw them out. Students sometimes sat on them or used them as tables. Those blown amps “floated around” for years, says Ethan Holland ’98, before finding a home in the club’s basement. “Cobain blew out the new PAs we’d just acquired,” says Misha Lepetic ’94. The volume caused Ben Schonberger ’93 to leave after two songs. “So loud that we were plastered against the back wall,” adds Jennifer McLean ’93. It was wild!”īut the one thing everyone who was there remembers? How loud it was. “They drank and played and hurled cans out of the box at the stone walls behind and around us. “I remember taking a long gulp, then dashing the full can at the feet of the audience,” he says. ![]() There was no stage diving from the balcony, remembers Tom Lincoln ’93, “but the tatted visitors from the University of Delaware made the mosh pit much more punk.”Īt one point, Beams says, someone passed a 12-pack of Pabst to the band. ![]() “They were amazing - great energy and passion with catchy hooks and lyrics.” “There couldn’t have been more than 50 people there, but it was kinetic,” Ellis says. They also played future MTV staple “In Bloom,” in which commenters on YouTube - where the full show can be heard - note early fragments of breakout hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The band kicked off its set with “School,” from its debut album, Bleach, which had been getting play on WSRN. Memories of the finer points may have been lost to time, but not the feeling of having been there. “When I look back at my time at Swarthmore, they are the nights that stand out.”įollowing is a people’s history of legendary concerts at Swarthmore, whether for artistry or memorable circumstances - from internationally renowned rock bands to student a capella groups to folk singer-activists to chart-topping rappers. “As Swatties, you knew you worked harder, and those performances were the things you’d look forward to for months,” Bryant recalls. Performances large and small, seen in all types of spaces across campus, imbued adventure into the flow of student life. It’s hard to overstate the role such performances played for countless Swarthmoreans - the indelible memories they took away, the bonds built with classmates. It was awesome!” recalls Bryant, who later got backstage to take photos. “He brought me and a handful of other Swatties on stage. “And from the instant the band took the stage, we knew we were experiencing a show unlike any we’d ever seen.”įorty years later, all the way across campus in the Fieldhouse, Sean Anthony Bryant ’13 had his moment, watching Big Boi, half of the chart-topping rap duo Outkast, electrify a capacity crowd. “We knew nothing about, but it was a beautiful, balmy April afternoon, and a free show, so we went,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he says.įor Dave Scheiber ’76, the “magical moment” happened in the Scott Outdoor Amphitheater, as he and his friends were introduced to a sly, fedora-wearing dynamo. “ the opening act, but played a long set. “The stage might have been eight square feet crowded into the eastern end of the first floor the band completely filled it,” remembers Beams. But some enduring memories quickly took hold. N April of 1990, Jonathan Beams ’92 knew nothing about Nirvana, the Seattle rock trio that would soon upend the charts and youth culture. ![]()
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