Photos: Connor McCourtney
This past Friday at 8 p.m., the Student Activities Board hosted a concert on Pomerantz Stage featuring The Heyday. For the next hour, upper Olmsted was filled with the pop/rock songs of this up-and-coming band.
Hailing from Denver, The Heyday has been making music together for five years. Their sound can be described as pop/rock with a bit of a down-home feel. Fans of popular musicians such as The Fray, John Mayer, Plain White T’s and Kings of Leon would enjoy The Heyday.
Part of the reason SAB Bands co-chairs Jen Calder and Michael Riebel chose The Heyday was because of the band’s sound.
“Their sound is upbeat, we thought a large amount of students would enjoy it,” Calder said.
When it comes to choosing bands to play at Drake, Calder and Riebel have the process down to a science.
“When looking for performers we contact different agencies, we will see who is going to be in the area,” Riebel said.
Since it is primarily Drake students who will be coming to see the band or performers, Calder and Riebel always keep them in mind.
“We see what students would like to listen to, and try to bring in a variety of acts,” Riebel said.
Choosing The Heyday to perform at the first SAB-hosted concert of the new semester seemed to be an excellent choice. The students who attended enjoyed the band’s upbeat vibe, and were dancing to the beat. The Heyday kept the audience’s energy up, joking with the crowd between songs and encouraging them to clap, or even sing along to each song.
The Heyday took time to slow things down with their song “Lost With You.” A silence fell among the crowd as it became enraptured with the love song. Looking around at the students, it was obvious that they had all fallen under a daze; they simply could not take their eyes off the band.
While all of The Heyday’s original music was quite catchy, their cover of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ hit “Free Fallin’” was just as impressive. The entire audience was singing and rocking along.
When it came time for The Heyday to finally end their set, they closed out with singing The Beatles’ classic hit, “Hey Jude.” This brought the audience to its feet, as they clapped in appreciation for the band’s terrific performance that night.
“I liked them, they were fun to listen to,” said Brian Kalina, a music and actuarial science major. “I’ve been to other SAB concerts and they’ve always been fun. I try to come to as many as I can.”
With The Heyday’s successful and well-received performance, SAB continues to show that they know what the students want. In the upcoming weeks, SAB has quite a lot planned, especially for the week of Valentine’s Day.
“We are going to have around four events and some giveaways,” Calder said. “There will be something for everyone.”
SAB is also putting together Dogtown After Hours, a competition to see which student can create the best idea for an event that will occur on Friday, April 8. Students who are interested in Dogtown After Hours can find information in the Student Life Center.
