| Issue 11 | Volume 143 | Tuesday, April 14, 2015 | theavion.com |
#TNGBIGSHOW2015
A SUCCESS
DESPITE RAIN AND GENERATORS Trey Henderson Editor-in-Chief Thursday afternoon and faced with a hard decision, the Touch-N-Go executive board made the call: to stay strong and proceed with #TNGBIGSHOW2015 in the Voyager Parking Lot. Despite critical weather forecasts, setup in the ICI center would have been near impossible. Athletics’ scheduled Blue and Gold Gala, which took place Friday night preceding Bigshow, eliminated the freedom for TNG to set up in the ICI center. Stage and equipment setup for Bigshow, a two day process, would need to be crammed into a 6 hour period prior to the 7:30 p.m. show start. With hundreds of thousands of dollars of sound, lighting, and stage equipment, it simply wasn’t possible. As such, Touch-N-Go pushed forward and hoped for the best on Saturday afternoon. The day started with a forecasted 90% chance of rain at showtime and mother nature certainly didn’t disappoint. With a relatively calm morning and afternoon, conditions had degraded significantly by showtime. Hundreds of students lined Aerospace Boulevard in anticipation of the event when light raindrops began splashing down over campus. Within minutes, the light shower had turned to a downpour with students redirected to safety within the Student Village, Apollo, and McKay. Despite the inclimate weather, students’ morales were still high as they enjoyed their time in the Student Village atrium. One student joyously began playing “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the atrium piano to which dozens of others chimed in with vocals. With door opening now delayed an hour and twenty minutes from the scheduled 7:30 p.m. commencement due to extreme proximity lighting and the heavy downpours, students and members of the community finally began streaming in at 8:50 p.m. With The Icarus Effect now on stage and the crowd growing, it seemed as though Bigshow was back on track. But not for long. Soon into Smashmouth’s set, power failures began to plague the show. One of the rented generators, which was supplied with the wrong oil, began intermittently overheating. Built-in holds during the show were implemented and many inadvertent failures were masked by crowd-pleasing drum and guitar solos. Throughout one failure during Plain White Ts’ set, band members proceeded to take selfies with crowd member’s cell phones and even came into the crowd to meet with fans, take pictures, and sign memorabilia in order to pass time while the generator cooled. Unfortunately, the rain delay and generator complications resulted in an abbreviated set for all the acts, but nonetheless, #TNGBIGSHOW2015 was a huge success with hundreds in attendance enjoying free food, beer, and a great show.
Plain White T’s rhythm guitarist and lead vocals, Tim Lopez, plays fan favorites such as ‘Hey There Delilah,’ ‘1,2,3,4,’ and ‘Our Time is Now’ during Touch-N-Go’s Bigshow 2015. Photo Credit: Jack Taylor/The Avion Newspaper