On Friday March 14, LMU hosted its first ever Springchella concert, featuring Jordan Ward as the headliner, with opening acts from multiple LMU student performers. The evening opened with a dance performance from Kuumba, followed by two rock bands, Ultra Violet, and Midfield Ave, and finally, Ryann and Jay Hollywood performed individual sets before Jordan Ward took the stage at 8PM.
With Springchella, ASLMU took a different approach from previous Spring semester events. Before COVID, the school traditionally held a spring concert in the Burns backcourts called After Sunset.
“It’s always been a smaller concert than Fallapalooza, and was typically EDM music. We kind of swayed from that this year, we wanted to rebrand it and bring more of a coachella type vibe for the artists and for the concert in general.” Explained ASLMU Chief Programming officer Elijah Senior. “We really wanted another big concert, because Fall semester has so many events, and we felt like Spring needed to have some of that juice.”
The school initially planned on holding the concert at Lawton Plaza, but moved the event to the Burns atrium between Gersten Pavilion and Burns Recreation Center due to rain.
“Even though we started planning a few months out we did have a lot of last minute changes. At first we told the production company we already had a stage built, but then obviously we had to change it and build a whole new stage under Burns Atrium.” said Senior.
Roughly an hour before doors opened, the performers and event planners encountered another challenge. Following Kuumba’s opening dance performance, Ryann and Jay Hollywood were initially scheduled to give the first two musical performances of the evening. However, ASLMU organizers and student performers received a notice that the schedule would need to be changed. The school’s production company told ASLMU planners that the bands’ equipment would need to be set up before doors opened, which would leave little room on stage for Ryann and Jay Hollywood as the opening acts.
“They had dancers, and they were moving around. You can’t really do that if you have all that equipment set up with that small of a stage. And so it just made more sense for the bands to go first, and to take all the equipment off afterwards. We didn’t want it to be that way, but production said it would be the easiest for them.” explained Senior, “And this is the production company that we’ve been using for 10-15 plus years. They had a daughter that went to LMU, so they always give us a great discount and we love working with them.”
The organizers decided on a last minute change, moving Ultra Violet and Midfield Ave’s respective sets to the beginning of the event following Kuumba’s dance performance, and pushing Ryann and Jay Hollywood’s sets to the latter half of the show.
“All of us were kind of taken aback thinking ‘that can’t be true’.” said Midfield Ave lead guitarist Charlie Flan. “It was a really big shock… We understand that there are definitely things out of [the school’s] control, and we appreciate everything that they did do to get this show going and to get us there, but as a band, I think that we could’ve worked with the production company to switch things over just so that the people who planned to come see us would’ve had a chance to make it, and not having that was really disappointing.”
Flan explained that the band has been working hard to build a following over the past year, and saw Springchella as an opportunity to promote their upcoming show at the Troubadour on April 19th, and their EP releasing the same day. Despite the last minute changes, he is able to reflect positively on the event.
“At the end of the day, I think what’s most important is that we are so lucky to have the LMU support that we do. We’re really appreciative to have gotten this gig.” said Flan. “It’s not like we’re looking at this as a total loss. We went out there and played two new songs, and we got to announce our Troubadour show as well, so I think we made it as successful as we could’ve.”
Although the last minute hurdles were discouraging to band members, things ran relatively smoothly once the show was underway. Each performer was able play a full set for an enthusiastic audience. The crowd cheered on Kuumba’s dancers, moshed with Jay Hollywood, and sang along with Ultra Violet, Midfield Ave, and Ryann. By the time Jordan Ward came on, Burns Atrium was packed with LMU students.
Senior characterized Springchella as an overall success, stating that over 1,000 students attended, and that this was likely a vast increase from last year’s After Sunset concert.
“I feel like we made it the best show possible. Jordan Ward was an amazing performer and very easy to work with– and I especially think all the student performers were super super good”, said Senior. “I think the whole show, for all the complications, went super well. I hope this is a tradition that will last”
