Country singer Dierks Bentley will perform at the fall concert at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.
This announcement has some students counting down the days.
“I was really excited when I found out he was coming because I’m a huge country music fan,” junior Melissa Osterhaus said.
“He’s the man,” sophomore Joe Zander said.
Other students, such as junior Alyssa Hollenback, do not know who he is.
“I’m not a huge fan of country, so I’m not really looking forward to it,” she said. “To be honest, I’ve never even heard of the guy.”
Freshman Alecia Hupperts also said she hadn’t heard of Dierks Bentley.
“Apparently everyone else does,” Hupperts said.
Despite the different attitudes towards the concert, STAR is receiving overall positive feedback from the student body and is expecting a large turnout after 2010’s spring country concert success with performer Phil Vassar and opening act Chuck Wicks.
“I think we’re going to get a really positive turnout, only because the last country concert went so well,” said Jake McChesney, STAR programming intern. “We’ve already got a lot of positive feedback from people. He’s a bigger country name, so we think it’s going to go really well.”
“[Phil Vassar and Chuck Wicks] was the best attended concert that we’ve had in the last several years,” said Linnea Bicking, STAR programming intern. “We really think St. Thomas students are excited about a country singer performing again.”
Bicking also said that the decision to bring a country singer to campus again was not necessarily one STAR intentionally made. A list of appropriate performers was made in the beginning of the year and whittled down to performers who were interested and also available that weekend.
Bicking said, “We find a certain date that we can work with in the AARC, and then we just go about finding an artist that is available to come on that day.”
Last year’s fall concert with performer Jack’s Mannequin was held on the same day as the Tommie-Johnnie football game at St. John’s University. STAR interns suggested this might have caused the drop in the concert’s attendance.
“We really tried to make sure and get a date where everyone would be in town, and everyone would be able to come,” Bicking said.
STAR’s goal for the Dierks Bentley concert is to meet capacity, which is set at 2,200 for 2,000 students and 200 guests.
Tickets are free with a St. Thomas student ID. The concert doors open at 9 p.m. with Dierks Bentley’s performance starting at 9:30 p.m. There will be no opening act.
Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu.