This evening, the normally peaceful Green will be awash with music, food and students as The Mowgli’s perform on the Green as the featured act in Collis Center and Programming Board’s House Kickoff. The event is intended to celebrate Dartmouth’s inaugural House Communities.
The idea for the concert was first brought up this past summer when faculty in the Housing Communities reached out to Programming Board for their help in bringing a band to campus. Acting Director of Student Involvement David Pack, who advises Programming Board, said that the board jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with the communities.
“We are really excited to show how this new system will work with a lot of our existing structures,” Pack said. “Plus, the opportunity to bring in a great band like The Mowgli’s is really exciting.”
They began the process of looking for artists in July. The selection process was very similar to that of other Programming Board concerts, such as the Green Key concert, in that the board, with the help of an agency, chooses a specific date and makes a list of available bands in their budget range.
The Mowgli’s stuck out as a top choice from the very beginning.
“Because it is a welcome back event and…a whole Dartmouth community event, we thought ‘OK, we want a band that is upbeat, family-friendly, enjoyable, accessible across a broad range and that has some name recognition,” Pack said.
Charlie Blatt ’18, who has been a fan of the group since their hit song “San Francisco” came out in 2012 during her junior year of high school, was thrilled to hear that The Mowgli’s were coming to campus.
“Usually bands that I’ve heard of don’t come to Dartmouth,” Blatt said. “Or often bands that I like do come to campus, but I start liking them after they have come.”
Haley Taylor ’19, who currently serves as the publicity chair for Friday Night Rock, a group that brings bands to campus a few Fridays every term, said the band’s music ranges fro pop punk to folksy to indie rock.
Taylor said they remind her of bands from the 2000s like The Click Five.
Samantha Lafontaine ’18, one of two general managers for Friday Night Rock, had heard of the Mowgli’s before, but she looked up more of their music after hearing that they would be coming to campus. Her favorite song is “San Francisco,” one of their most well-known hits.
“They’re fun, they’re upbeat and I like their harmonizing on the choruses,” Lafontaine said.
Taylor appreciates that their style is a departure from the more mainstream music acts that usually comes to Dartmouth during big concerts.
“This is a nice mix of mainstream and indie — a lot of students want to hear a mix of genres,” Taylor said.
