But this isn’t your typical horn studio. The instructors are considered two of the best in the country, and these five students, along with the 17 other trumpeters, have each beat out dozens of other people for their spot at Northwestern.

These students can expect to launch straight into the nation’s top performing groups, such as the New York Philharmonic. But despite the competitive nature of the profession, both students and professors describe the Northwestern trumpet studio as a close-knit family that succeeds as much because of collaboration as competition.

“A family atmosphere is not something you necessarily get at the Julliard School,” Brandon Eubank said.

Eubank is a senior in the trumpet performance program. He recently won a spot in the U.S. Marine Band, which plays music for the president at events such as weddings and inaugurations. Eubank beat out 90 other trumpeters over a two-day audition for a four-year enlistment, which makes him an automatic staff sergeant without going to boot camp.

Eubank continues the string of students and alumni from this select group getting high-profile jobs. Northwestern players fill the entire trumpet section of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and two of the three trumpet positions in the New York Philharmonic. Eubank says he came to Northwestern because of Butler and Geyer’s name-brand reputation.

“They are very, very famous,” Eubank said. “It’s just like, ‘Oh, Butler and Geyer, Butler and Geyer.”

The pair, who are both Northwestern alums, married while in orchestras on opposite sides of the country and taught separately until joining forces at the Eastman School of Music in New York for 18 years. They then moved to Northwestern, where they have been teaching for 10 years.

Geyer and Butler’s Eastman reputation, which includes three of the four trumpets in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is compounded by the recent success of Northwestern graduates. This reputation, along with Northwestern’s school of music and the music culture of Chicago, brings the best players to audition, Geyer said.

“It’s like most things: If you continue to do a good job and learn at whatever you job is, by about the time you are ready to die — that’s when you have a reputation,” Geyer said.

Two years ago, 80 people auditioned for the freshman, graduate, and transfer student spots at Northwestern. Then a recent Northwestern graduate got the third associate principal position in the New York Philharmonic, one of the top orchestras in the world. The next year, 120 people auditioned.

The trumpet students who are taken under the wing of Geyer and Butler can look forward to few academic classes (though still more than at a conservatory), and schoolwork that consists mostly of practicing for ensembles. Eubank said he tries to practice three to four hours each day on top of rehearsals for ensembles, which can each take up to as many as eight hours each week. Eubank plays in the Symphony Orchestra, the Brass Ensemble and a chamber group.

“Being a brass player, you can’t play forever,” Eubank said. “You can’t play for six hours a day like string players are expected to. You have to take care of your face.”

Trumpet majors also have a one-hour personal lesson every week, and many play small gigs such as weddings or church services. Underclassmen also take keyboard skills classes. While technique is a major element of the curriculum, there is also a practical focus. Students learn audition etiquette, how to play as a trumpet section and within an orchestra, and how to lead as a principal, second or third trumpet.

Students also study excerpts of trumpet parts from major works, which orchestras frequently use for auditions. Conductors often complain that young trumpet players don’t know the orchestral classics, Eubank said, but he makes sure to be prepared every time he is asked to play them in an audition.

Students usually study primarily with either Butler or Geyer, but they receive feedback from the other at group events or critiques. The students and professors both pointed to this teaching method as part of the reason for the success of the studio.

Geyer and Eubank both acknowledged that trumpet players tend to be hardheaded and show-offs, something Geyer sees as required to play the instrument. That feeling is reflected by a quote on the bulletin board outside Geyer’s office:

There are two sides to a trumpeter’s personality. There is the one that lives only to lay waste to the woodwinds and strings, leaving them lying blue and lifeless along the swath of destruction that is the trumpeter’s fury. And then there’s the dark side…

Students perform for each other every week, but say the competition is usually healthy.

Bryant Millet, 19, is a freshman in the trumpet program. Like many of the incoming freshmen and graduate students, Millet listened in high school as his band teacher raved about Geyer and Butler as “quite possibly some of the best trumpet teachers in the world.” Millet saw graduates landing big jobs and decided he had to apply.

“Being surrounded by such great players really makes me practice and want to improve,” he said.

Millet, like other students, found it difficult to say what exactly made his professors and the trumpet program special. Millet, who studies primarily with Geyer, did say he has greatly improved from his lessons here.

“Just by listening to my playing, [Geyer] can tell immediately everything I need to change,” Millet said. “I can change one thing and my playing can improve five times over.”

Millet is part of the new generation of Geyer and Butler’s ever-expanding family. Geyer said most of his students continue to be “like children” after graduation, by staying in contact. And, like a parent, Geyer doesn’t claim responsibility when his students get jobs in top orchestras, but he does ask for one thing in return.

“The only payback I want is that when you get that job you owe us a steak dinner. And they all know it,” Geyer said. “Those two guys in the New York Philharmonic still haven’t done it, and they know it.”

By Natalie Southwick

Sometimes, it seems like the main lesson we’re supposed to take away from our years at Northwestern is the truism, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” This week offered ample opportunities to rub elbows with both the famous and the soon-to-be-famous.

A&O’s Fall Quarter concert band, OK Go, makes their triumphant return to NU, and this time they’re going to do more than wear those awesome light-up jackets (I still want to know where to get one of those). Their Friday performance at the McCormick Tribune Center will include songs and a discussion of songwriting. Go to learn how to write your own songs, or just to declare your eternal love to Damian Kulash.

If you prefer your concerts a little louder and closer to home, NU’s very own rock stars, Boomshaka, have their spring show in the McCormick Auditorium this weekend. The show may be called “Restore Chaos,” but considering that it’s Boomshaka, I’m curious if chaos ever left.

For those among you whose indie-cred forbids them from seeing any band that someone else has heard of, we’ve got something for you, too: Mayfest’s Battle of the Bands pits Northwestern bands against each other for the chance to perform on Dillo Day. Since you probably won’t remember seeing whoever wins when they actually do play on Dillo Day, now is a good time to support your fellow student-musicians. Head to Nevin’s at 9 p.m. on Friday.

Drinking game of the week

By Andre Francisco

After a week off, we are back with a North Woods-inspired game called Moose. The game is a brilliant mix of quarters, kings and the classic seventh-heaven rule that gets you feeling and looking silly in no time.

Supplies:
1 empty ice tray
1 quarter
1 large cup
Drinks of any variety

The Game:
Place the cup in the center of a table and put the ice cube tray vertically (long-ways) in front of it. Have everyone pour a bit of their drink into the center cup. If everyone is drinking PBR, this isn’t so bad. But if you’re a bit more adventurous, use gin and tonic, Mike’s Hard Lemonade or any other mixed drink (warning: results could be nasty).

The aim of the game is to bounce the quarter off the table and into the ice-cube tray. If your quarter lands on the left side of the tray, it’s your turn to take a drink: the number of sips corresponds to which cube slot the quarter landed in. The closest slot to the thrower means one sip; the farthest means eight. If the quarter lands on the right side of the tray, the number of sips remains the same, but you choose someone else to drink them.

If you miss the tray entirely, drink one sip. If you make the quarter into the cup, then it’s a race for everyone to put their hands on their head to create “moose antlers”. The last person to grow antlers has to drink the cup’s concoction of alcohol and grossness. Then the cup is refilled with a little bit from everyone’s drink, and the game continues.

Bonus game: Movie mustache

This is like those mini-games you find in Grand Theft Auto, but with drinking. If you are watching a movie and want to add some drinking, grab some Scotch tape and a Sharpie. While the tape is still on the roll, draw a bunch of ridiculous mustaches on the tape. Then place the pieces of tape randomly over the TV screen. When an actor’s head lines up correctly with a mustache, everyone takes a shot. The number of mustaches you use will determine how many shots you’ll be taking, so be aware of how many ’staches you add. And when you get too drunk to pay attention to the movie, I recommend relocating the mustaches from the television screen to your friends’ faces.

Supplies:
Beer
People in a circle

The Game:
One person starts by saying the name of a celebrity, historical figure or well-known fictional character. Examples of acceptable responses include Scooby-Doo, Michael Jordan, Calvin Coolidge and Karl Rove. The next person in the circle must then start drinking until they think of someone whose first name starts with the same letter of the last name of the person that was previous said. So if someone said Bill Cosby, an acceptable answer would be Colin Farrell. This continues around the circle.

You can reverse the direction of the turns by saying someone whose first and last name starts with the same letter or someone who only has one name. Susan Sarandon or Cher send the drinking back to whoever sent it to you, but Oprah’s last name is Winfrey — so the drinking continues in the same direction. This rule can create battles of drunken wits between two people who refuse to stop drinking until they have thought of a name to reverse the drinking direction.

The general rule to who counts as a response is if the majority of the people in the room know who they are. So if you are in a journalism crowd, Frank Rich and Bill Kristol count. Theater majors can get away with Mary Zimmerman, and biology students can blurt out Gregor Mendel. The game has it’s own twist for every new group of people you play with.

This may seem obvious, but you have to keep drinking while you are thinking of a name. People tend to forget this and stop drinking in frustration. Make it your job to remind them exactly what game they are playing. There is also no real end to this game, so when it devolves in to a discussion about whether Britney Spear’s Blackout has any redeeming qualities or if George Stephanopoulos would make a good Hiphopapotamus, it’s time to stop.

Drink of the Week: Ice Cream Genius

By Natalie Southwick

Yes, it sometimes snows in Evanston when it should be spring. Now get over it. There are far more important ice-related events this time of year, anyways. Yes, folks, I’m talking about the glory that was Tuesday’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. There are few things in life better than ice cream, and VERY few things more exciting than getting something for free. Combine the two, and you getting something like bliss. Ice cream does more than just decorate cones, though. Here’s a fun and simple yet delicious drink to help you dispose of that extra scoop (or three).

Ice Cream Genius

Ingredients:

• 2 oz amaretto
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Directions: Blend all ingredients together in a blender (good luck stealing one of those from Sargent). Serve in a cocktail glass.

As recently as last week, more than 150,000 people on Facebook said they were a fan of Ticketmaster. That’s more than Hillary Clinton, John McCain or even Starbucks. Ticketmaster’s profile was Facebook’s fifth-most popular page.

It seems that that’s because the majority of these people weren’t real, and were only in it for the music.

If you looked at Ticketmaster’s fans list you would have noticed that a surprisingly large number of them don’t have a profile picture. Many also don’t have any friends or belong to any networks.

But the real tip-off was the names of many of Ticketmaster’s faceless fans, which were generic, ridiculous or seemingly just created by someone mashing their keyboard.

This anomaly was first reported by East Village Idiot, and then the whole Internet caught on. Ticketmaster has since lost 90,000 fans, more than South Park currently has, and has dropped to 52nd place.

It looks like for once, Ticketmaster was taken advantage of by normal people, instead of the other way around. Though Ticketmaster and Facebook have made no official comment, the Internet consensus is that a marketing campaign encouraged Facebook users to wantonly break the social network’s terms of service.

Through November, anyone who became a Facebook fan of Ticketmaster received a code for five free songs from iTunes. This promotion had no restrictions, and it didn’t matter if your profile was obviously fake. So people went crazy, creating thousands of fake profiles to get tons of free songs. And, really, who wouldn’t?

Except that it is clearly against Facebook’s terms of service, which requires users to “agree not to use the Service or the Site to register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity.”

While the promotion might have temporarily improved the image of a company known for its “convenience fees,” the Internet buzzed with stories about Ticketmaster either faking its Facebook rise, or of Ticketmaster being royally duped. Friendship cancellations sent the Ticketmaster page to below-Nutella popularity on Facebook.

It probably hasn’t been fun for Ticketmaster, who has long been desperate for positive PR. On CafePress you can buy everything from thongs to teddy bears emblazoned with “Ticketbastard”.

The angry and organized can visit ticketmastersucks.org or ticketmastersucks.info. In addition to “convenience fees,” these sites take issue with Ticketmaster’s privacy policy. Most online companies promise not to give your information to any third parties. Ticketmaster says no to third parties, but yes to a whole different list, including all of its sister companies, Match.com, Collegehumor.com, Ask.com, Citysearch.com, Ticketweb.com, Evite.com, Vimeo.com, BustedTees.com and dozens of other sites — pretty much the whole Internet.

Still, at the end of the day, Facebook users got more than their fair share of free songs, and others got to laugh at silly names. Ticketmaster certainly got what it asked for: a bunch of free publicity.

For the basic rules, and pictures of the game being played, watch the video below.

Special Rules: Getting another beer should be referred to as “leveling up” and taking a shot is called “fighting a boss.” You’re not getting drunk: You’re “getting wise”. If you have some Dungeons & Dragons or World of Warcraft experience you may want to choose a character class for the night, such as paladin, ranger or fighter. You can also pick your race, such as human or elf.

It’s also important to take a wizard name and then make people drink when they accidentally call you by your real name. A great way to get your wizard name? Combine your middle name with the street you lived on as a kid. This formula temporarily christened me Weaver Zenith.

The game also has a little bit of an Edward 40 Hands element: after a couple of levels it becomes difficult to put down your staff without tipping it over. That makes for an interesting experience when you “level out,” or go to the bathroom.

These are only some of the side rules that were made up while playing the game — part of the fun of the game is inventing your own variations.

Facebook began slowing rolling out the chat feature to select networks on April 6.

Facebook chat is similar to Google’s G-Chat in that it is built into a bar at the bottom of a page and doesn’t need to be downloaded or installed. Your buddy list is composed of your Facebook friends and you have the option of signing out of the chat feature while browsing Facebook.

Mini-feeds will also be imported into chat windows. So if someone joins a group or creates an event while you are chatting, it will appear in the chat box automatically. This feature can be turned off though.

The chat bar also displays any notifications that would normally appear on your Facebook homepage.

In an effort to head off any more uproars about privacy, Facebook tried to address concerns in a post on the official blog.

“Conversations are one-to-one, completely private, and only between Facebook friends,” Josh Wiseman said in the blog post.

Chat history is saved from window to window and between logins, but not permanently. You can also delete your chat history at any time.

Play with glass bottles to take it up a notch. Photo by idgie. on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons.

The Supplies:
One can of beer per person
A ping-pong ball
One beer pong table
An even number of people (no fewer than 2, no more than 6)

The Game:
Split the people playing into two teams. Each team takes one side of the table, placing their beers on the edge. Then each player takes turns throwing the ping pong ball at the can diagonal from them. If the ball hits the can, then the thrower begins to chug their beer until the other team can get the ball and place it back on the table. This continues until one team finishes all their beers, and is declared the winner of the round.

When you’ve drained your can, place it on your head like a crown– to signal that you are awesome, of course. If you finish your beer before your teammates, continue to take turns throwing at the other cans– when you hit one, one of your teammates drinks.

Try playing this game in all different types of rooms. The level of difficulty depends on the layout and size of the room, and on the presence of obstacles like couches and chairs.

Additional rules:
If your beer is knocked over, by you or by someone else, your penalty is starting with a new beer, so grab another. If the knocked over beer was less than half full, you chug what’s left and play until the new one is gone. If it was more than half full, set it aside and play with the new one. Then get revenge by throwing the ball when the other team is distracted or turned away, which is encouraged, not illegal.

Bonus Advanced Version:
For the big kids. If you want to mix it up or if you run out of beer in cans, try playing with glass bottles of beer. The glass bottles make the ping pong balls fly all over the place, meaning more chugging. The fast nature of the game also causes a lot of beer slamming, which inevitably leads to volcanoes of foam– an added danger. It is acceptable to drink off the foam after the ball has been returned to the table, but not cool to steal any extra beer to get ahead. For an additional twist, begin this version of the game by placing a bottle opener in the center of the table and scrambling to open your beers on one, two, three, go! First team to open all their beers starts.

The Supplies:
Beer or mixed drinks
A deck of cards
A circle of people, preferably your friends

They may have played one too many games of Spew. Photo by Butterbits on Flickr.

The Game:
The rules of the game are simple: Players sit in a circle, and the dealer picks two people (sitting next to each other) to go head-to-head. The dealer then flips a card, and the two people have to say a word that starts with the same letter as the number on the card. So if you draw a five, you have to shout out words that start with “f,” like fizzle or flagella.

The first person to yell out a word wins the card and moves on to face the next person in the circle, while the loser takes a sip from their drink. Winners keep the card they won. At the end of the game, everyone counts their cards. Whoever has the most is the grand champion.

That’s pretty much it. It sounds almost too simple when first explained, but translating a number into a letter, and then into a word, is not as easy as you’d imagine. Often players are reduced to loud yelling sounds and syllables that never quite make it into words. Which is funny. And then they have to drink.

Clarifying rules:
The word you say can’t be a number, so if the card comes up a three, saying thirty or three hundred doesn’t cut it. It’s also illegal to use any proper names, or a word that has already won, though you can reuse losing words.

Depending on the size of the group, there is relatively little drinking involved in this game: only one sip each time you lose. So it makes it a great game to play with mixed drinks, unlike mixed-drink beer pong, which can end in bad times all around.

Stokes was a member of the successful independent trio Dispatch. He’s taken the knowledge he gained in Dispatch to help him lead of his current band, State Radio. Despite being offered major record contracts — the kind college bands dream about — Stokes has chosen to stay independent.

“We’ve had some fancy lunches and penthouse offices in New York and that stuff’s a trip,” Stokes said. “Sometimes you come away from those meetings with a bad taste in your mouth.”

The recording industry is increasingly leaving a sour aftertaste for many artists, including superstars like Madonna and Radiohead. Low royalty rates, lack of creative freedom and an industry that is slow to adapt to a digital world have begun to push artists away from the major record labels. At the same time, the public face of the record labels, the RIAA, has alienated and angered many fans by suing tens of thousands of consumers for illegally downloading music.

The movement of artists against the traditional model has been symbolized by recently independent band Radiohead’s decision to offer their new album, In Rainbows, for as much as consumers wanted to pay, whether that be $5080 or nothing. And other artists are following suit.

As a promotion, Prince gave away 2.8 million copies of his latest album Planet Earth through a newspaper in England, much to the dismay of his distributor.

The decision to give away albums, the traditional unit of the music industry, is a sign that some artists are changing their business models and focusing on merchandise sales and touring. This decision may be partially because sales of records or individual songs make very little for artists signed to major labels. Of the 99 cents paid for each song on iTunes, the artist usually only receives around 10 cents.

“Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist’s work without any intention of paying for it,” said Courtney Love in a 2000 speech at the Digital Hollywood Online Entertainment Conference. “I’m not talking about Napster-type software. I’m talking about major label recording contracts.”

Love, a multi-platinum recording artist, then laid out a hypothetical scenario about a band that gets a record deal with a million-dollar advance. This advance is then used to pay for recording an album, shooting two music videos and a tour. After a long list of expenses and a low royalty rate, the band ends up with zero profit while the record company has made $6.6 million dollars.

Major artists, like Madonna, are trying to get out of their contract with major record labels. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Madonna left her record label, Warner Brothers Records, to work with an unusual partner: concert promotion company Live Nation. The $120 million deal allows Live Nation to promote three studio albums, her tours and her name for the next 10 years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The independent model

Chad Stokes admits that switching from a major record label to an independent model is a trade-off between serious marketing, radio and tour support on one side and artistic freedom and better royalties on the other. Despite this, Stokes says he is happy with how State Radio is doing.

“There is a chance when you sign with a record company you could go huge,” Stokes said. “But there is more of a chance that they will shelf your albums if they don’t see any singles on it. And then you’ll be sort of stuck in a contract for a couple years.”

Instead of risking being shelved, Stokes has followed the independent band business model to create the success of Dispatch and the rising popularity of State Radio.

“We are a live band, and we tour around,” Stokes said. “We have a couple records that are out there, but really the nuts and bolts of what we do is touring.”

This mentality that merchandise and touring is the foundation of an independent band instead of record sales is partially why State Radio decided to offer a free download of all their previous albums before the release of their new album Year of the Crow.

Even though record sales are a smaller portion of the band’s income, it makes more per song than most artists. For every single sold on iTunes, State Radio gets between 60 and 70 cents, six times what artists signed to major recording labels get, according to Stokes.

Not only are the income models different, but also promotion and marketing for independent bands focus on a whole different set of tools. Major record deals come with radio play, which is paid for, but independent bands can hope to be discovered through online radio stations that suggest artists based on a listener’s tastes. Pandora and Last.fm use different methods to pair consumers with new bands, but both are avenues for discovery for the bands that don’t make it on the radio.

State Radio won’t be seen on many billboards or buses, but like most musicians they have capitalized on the marketing opportunity of MySpace.

Almost every musician from Northwestern’s The Foster-Walk Complex (16,000 profile views and 2,500 friends) to Justin Timberlake (44 million profile views and 950,000 friends) is on MySpace, but independent artists and rising musicians have the most to gain from the social networking giant.

The biggest MySpace success story is singer, model and reality TV star Tila Tequila. Her profile has 93 million views and she has 2.4 million friends — almost the population of Nevada. Though Tequila had done some previous modeling, her MySpace fame helped her secure a record contract and her own reality TV show on MTV: A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.

Tequila’s single “I Love U” was included in a compilation released by newly formed MySpace records. The record label was created in part because MySpace has become a gathering place for unsigned musicians. The label is partnered with Universal Music Group for distribution and marketing. The first ever MySpace music tour started this fall and is featuring Hellogoodbye and Say Anything.

As the industry changes and more artists choose to be independent for financial or artistic reasons, the model for making music is shifting away from record sales and towards touring and merchandise.

There have been many critiques by consumers and artists of the record industry, but few have been as clear as the one from heavy metal band Throwdown, which is still under contract.

According to punknews.org, in a letter sent to former industry-executive Bob Lefsetz, Throwdown said, “If you wanna really support a band, ’steal’ their album… help bury the label… and buy a t-shirt when you show up at their show and sing every word.”

Despite the intricate woodwork and ornate balconies designed for easy access to booze, on Nov. 10 the House of Blues was home to a more sobering topic: raising money and awareness about the genocide in Darfur. A slideshow of somber images didn’t seem to dampen the drinking, as three people collapsed on the floor next to sound booth before 10 p.m.

The House of Blues hosted The Beautiful Girls and State Radio as part Rock for Darfur, a one-day event where 47 bands on four continents played to raise money for Darfur activism. Though the spirit of the night was helping Darfur, the atmosphere was closer to apathetic.

The Beautiful Girls, an Australian band, opened the night without a mention of the genocide while State Radio, a more politically vocal band, referenced the night’s event by twice mentioning the pair of booths back by the coat check. Both mentions drew applause, but the energy started low with the Beautiful Girls’ set and stayed that way as few people outside the main floor went so far as singing along or even bobbing their heads during State Radio’s set. When State Radio played Sudan, a song off their new album Year of the Crow that was almost tailored for the night, the response was subdued.

Aaron Sleger, 18, didn’t come to the concert to support Darfur, but he also didn’t know either of the bands. Even though Darfur activism was prominent in Sleger’s high school and he has donated money before, a friend’s recommendation and a famous venue got him to the concert.

Other concerts happened in Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Scotland and Tasmania in addition to many throughout the U.S. Among the performers were Fall Out Boy, Puddle of Mudd, Megadeth and Maroon 5.

One dollar from each ticket went toward organizations fighting the genocide in Darfur. The featured organizations were Oxfam International, which runs refugee camps along the Sudanese border, and Save Darfur, a coalition of organizations working on Darfur issues.

Click to hear State Radio leader Chad Stokes Urmston talk about what people can do to get involved in Darfur:

Behind a pile of buttons and an e-mail sign up list, Sara Murray worked the booth for Oxfam International, an organization working to solve injustice and poverty through programs ranging from emergency relief to political advocacy in major governments.

Considering the high school-to-college demographic of the crowd, Murray was aiming for interest and email addresses, not donations. Next to her green buttons were pamphlets about a high school senior Oxfam sent to the Darfur region to tour the refugee camps and some areas inside Darfur.

“I think [the high school student’s story] is an appropriate age connect with the people who are here,” Murray said. “It is a really accessible way to introduce people to the issue.”

Though Murray suspected much of the audience was there for the music, she said that soon after the doors had opened she’d talked to a handful of people there because of the Darfur connection.

But even the politically active said they were mostly there for the music.

“I am a State Radio fan,” Cassidy Duran said. “[But I’m here] more ’cause the Beautiful Girls are opening for them.”

Duran, who is involved in Amnesty International and has given money to Darfur causes in the past, was doubtful about how politically conscious the audience was. At a State Radio show in Madison, Wisc., Duran asked people in line if they knew the story behind one of State Radio’s popular songs, “Camilo.” Few knew the song referenced 28-year-old Sgt. Camilo Mejía, who refused to return to Iraq after fighting there for six months and was sentenced to one year in jail. Mejía had given a speech in Madison right before the concert, but the audiences of the two events didn’t share many members.

“Sometimes [fans] don’t necessarily let the message sink in, they just kind of rock out,” Duran said. “I think eventually that osmosis will happen. I hope.”

Next to the Oxfam booth, a group of college students were hoping to jump-start the osmosis process by promoting small actions individuals can take.

“Right now our big thing is Darfur Fast, which is December 5,” said Columbia College student Jo Feldman, who heads the 70-member Columbia College chapter of Students Taking Action Now for Darfur (STAND). “It’s one day where we are asking people to give up one thing they would normally do, like buying a cup of coffee or buying lunch for themselves, and take that money that they didn’t spend on that day and give it to Darfur.”

Feldman and other STAND members also promoted two new Darfur documentaries: Darfur Now and The Devil Came on Horseback.

Darfur Now features six stories, including one of Hotel Rwanda star Don Cheadle, in their fight to save Darfur. The Devil Came on Horseback shows the genocide through the words and photographs of former U.S. Marine Captain, and official military observer, Brian Steidle.

Feldman said she has seen a couple fans with Sudan shirts and hats, but that she partially attributed that to the idea that “it is hip now to be into social activism.”

Whatever the audience’s motives for attending the concert, Aaron Sleger, a STAND member from Indiana University and big State Radio fan, thought the band was doing the concert with pure intentions.

“They’re not out here to gain…publicity or money or anything,” Sleger said. “They are out here to create a good kind of awareness.”

Click to listen to a live recording of State Radio’s song Sudan from their new album Year of the Crow: