On a stage that usually sees the likes of Nobel Peace prizewinners, hard-rocking bands Gym Class Heroes and VerseCity put on an energetic show for an equally energized crowd of UH students.
The Student Program Board-produced event took more than eight months to organize and Brittney Mathis, chair of the concert committee is glad that everything came together.
“The students loved Gym Class Heroes, and the band had a lot of fun too,” Mathis said. “They were such nice guys and simply incredible.”
Opening band VerseCity, who hail from Houston, got the crowd pumped for the Heroes. Many of the students asked had never heard the band perform before.
Lead singer for VerseCity Micah Walker is a UH alum who tweeted the day before the show that VerseCity was “opening for @GymClassHeroes tomorrow night… Can’t lie, I’m pretty pumped!”
UH students were pumped as well judging from how the crowd went insane when Gym Class Heroes came out.
Organizers even allowed students to rush the stage, which gave the concert an even greater energy and allowed for Heroes’ vocalist Travie McCoy to engage the crowd in a more personal way.
Midway through the Heroes’ performance, McCoy jumped off the Cullen stage and approached the screaming crowd that was held back by metal barriers. He crossed the barriers and joined the crowd of UH students.
“Welcome to the family,” McCoy told the crowd.
He also kept encouraging students to enjoy life and even did an exercise during the show where audience members were asked to hug the person to the left and right.
Throughout the show, fans were overheard shouting, “I love you,” to the band. Later, fans went crazy when McCoy wiped his face with a towel and threw it into the crowd.
The energy of the show was enough for both bands to take to Twitter afterwards and give a shout out to the concert-going Coogs.
“Thank you, University Of Houston! We had a blast,” read a Tweet on the GCH Twitter page. “Hope you did too!”
VerseCity’s Twitter page featured a Tweet that read, “HOUSTON, Thanks for the love last night!”
Mathis, a longtime GCH fan, said the planning of the show was “a dream come true,” and had nothing but praise for the many people that helped make the event a success.
“I really want to thank my amazing staff,” Mathis said. “They were incredible and helped me so much throughout the entire show. I’m so proud of my staff and the entire Student Program Board.”
UH student Kyle Corrales said the concert was more than just a concert.
“I think that the presence of Gym Class Heroes on campus is a great demonstration of how UH is building up our community and becoming more recognizable on the national stage.”
The concert was the first of SPB’S annual “Large Concert” series. Planning for the next show has not started yet. Once a new concert committee chair is elected, she or he will take charge and plan the next big show, Mathis said.
The show was free to the first 1,500 current UH students who were able to secure a wristband prior to the event. SPB used money from tuition and fees allotted by the Student Fees Advisory Committee to pay for the event.
