Well, apparently, it’s been made official. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is playing here at SUNY Oswego on April 26. Originally, I thought the major band playing here was going to be O.A.R. I recall seeing a flier posted in Hewitt a few months ago saying it was O.A.R., but I don’t mind. I like this much better. I love RJA, and I’m so ecstatic about this!

I remember first hearing The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on the radio with the hit “Face Down.” I’m pretty sure, in fact, that that was when most everyone heard them, unless, of course, you’ve been a diehard since the self-titled debut, which I don’t think was even signed to a major label, but I could be wrong. I’ve only heard the song “Angels Cry” from that record, although I think there’s an earlier version of “Face Down” on there as well.

The new album is amazing. They did change their style, and Ronnie really doesn’t scream like he did on the previous record (The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has often been closely associated with the term “screamo”), but I think his vocal ability and range is proven to be amazing, especially with songs like “Pen and Paper” and the emotionally epic “Godspeed.” I love “Godspeed” so much. I love songs that touch my heart somehow, and art related to war always does. The story told in the song is heartbreakingly painful to hear. If they perform that at the concert, it’s going to be something epic.

I’m just so excited for this concert! I first found out at the Twilight showing at the campus center, which I want to say was early March? I don’t recall the exact date. Anyway, one of the girls who was working there said that the concert had been confirmed and that it was The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on April 26. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In fact, I’m not even kidding, I thought for sure that I had misheard her, especially since when I did my own online research that night, I found nothing regarding them playing here, not on April 26 or ever. However, it has since been made official on their MySpace and Facebook and various other sites, and I am so psyched! Have I not made that clear enough? In fact, even though it’s 1:30 AM on Friday morning, if I were to still count this as Thursday, then I could say that it’s a month from today!

On Sunday, November 2nd at the Campus Center, I attended a concert that featured The Score, Thieves and Villains and Nightmare of You. I have been a fan of Nightmare of You for a couple of years now, and I just find it somewhat disappointing that I had to find out from a friend of mine in Manhattan that they were playing here tonight. If it wasn’t for her randomly mentioning it in casual conversation over AIM, I never would have known about it, probably not even afterwards since there were less than twenty students at the concert, none of whom I knew. My point is that I really do think that when events like this happen on campus, students should be made aware of it. They shouldn’t have to find out from friends who don’t even live here. There really should have been more promotion, because I didn’t see any posters around campus.

Anyway, I want to use this blog entry to talk about my concert experience, not to rant about that. The concert was, in my opinion, amazing. Admission was $5.00 and was paid before the concert began. Nightmare of You was the only band I had heard of prior to attending the concert, but that turned out to be ironic, because I enjoyed the first band, The Score, the most. I loved the energy in their music, and all of their songs were extremely catchy. Of course, I was under the impression at that point that there were only two bands playing and therefore assumed that it was Thieves and Villains that I was watching, so when their set was over, I headed over to the merchandise table to buy the Thieves and Villains album that they had for sale, only to discover later that it was the wrong band, but it was okay, because even though not nearly as good as The Score, they were good as well. What’s also really exciting is that The Score’s album, Songs for a Halfway Home, will be available legally for free download in a couple of weeks, as the band’s frontman pointed out at the concert.

The second band, which I eventually discovered was Thieves and Villains, was also good but not as good as The Score. Although their music was also energetic, it didn’t have the same power, emotion and melodic catchiness that The Score’s music featured. Also, (which was actually a problem for all three bands) the sound system obviously wasn’t adjusted correctly, because the bands’ instruments were too loud and therefore drowned out the frontmens’ voices, making them difficult to hear. Their set was short, as they only played a handful of songs.

Lastly was Nightmare of You. I recognized a few of the songs, because, again, this was the only band that played that I had heard of beforehand, and they therefore influenced me to go to the concert initially. In fact, when I went, I thought they were the only band playing. However, even though I also enjoyed Nightmare of You, they were also not The Score musically. The Score was definitely my favorite set, and I am now very excited for the album to be released online.

Again, however, I’m sure that there were students on campus that like at least one of the bands that played and would have loved to have gone but didn’t because they didn’t know about it. In the future, even if it means having the concert in a larger location than the Campus Center food court (a band called Out of Hiding is playing here Wednesday in the Hewitt Union Ballroom, and it’s a free concert), events such as this really should be more heavily promoted so students actually know what’s going on and are aware of events such as this. I’m sure that it was advertised somewhere, but if I didn’t see it, then it wasn’t made obvious enough, because I love music and am constantly looking for opportunties to hear new bands, as I’m sure other students do as well.

Reflecting on my high school days, I recall an annual magazine called Galleries that I took part in. Each year, my school released this magazine that contained student-written poetry as well as artwork. I enjoyed writing poetry and submitting it to the magazine, having students and teachers read it when the magazine was published and comment on it. Of course, their interpretation of what I had written didn’t always match what I intended when I wrote it, but that’s what art is all about. I’m also not going to say that my poetry is anything stellar, because it definitely isn’t. Poetry and free-writing are simply ways for me to express myself, and I feel as if those feelings are not fully expressed unless they have been published somehow.

As far as I know, SUNY Oswego doesn’t have such a club or publication, and I think that it would be very beneficial, or at least creatively stimulating, to the campus’s environment if it did. Even if it wasn’t a separate publication (even though I believe that would be the best route to take) but instead published as a section in the Oswegonian, at least students have a way for their work to be published. I also think that it would be a good idea, because I think that for some students, the thought of having their work published would encourage them to write outside of the classroom. As someone who writes as often as he can, I know that, for me, writing independently, especially creative writing, helps me relax, and again, also helps me express myself in a way that I wouldn’t know how otherwise.

SUNY Oswego really should have this available to students, and it doesn’t need to be exclusive to poetry. All forms of creative writing, such as short stories, could be published as well, and this goes back to what I said earlier about students being encouraged to write outside of the classroom, because it works both ways. If students are encouraged to write, then other students are encouraged to read, and the more students who are reading, the higher the incentive there is for writers to keep writing. I wouldn’t know how to go about initiating such a club myself, but I definitely think it can be done with a group of students who also think it would be a good idea.