The floor in front of the stage became a sea of brightly dyed hair, body piercings and pop punk apparel on Friday, March 7, as excited fans welcomed Citizen and Modern Baseball to The Rathskeller.
The walls were shaking as everyone in the full house was singing and head banging along to the music, in between bites of their cheesesteaks and onion rings.
Modern Baseball opened the night with their feel-good music and it was clear they were having fun on stage.
Brendan Lukens and Jacob Ewald, both on vocals and guitar, Ian Farmer on bass and Sean Huber on drums, played songs off their 2012 debut album, “Sports,” and their recently-released album, “You’re Gonna Miss It All.”
Modern Baseball played the songs “Re-Done,” “Tears For Beers,” “Your Graduation” and “The Weekend,” which the crowd turned into a sing-a-long.
In between songs, the band would talk to the audience — which was comprised of the College students and outside fans — about their favorite television shows, movies and plans for spring break.
“There are some very cool shows here,” Ewald noted of the CUBRat event.
CUBRat co-chair Matthew Mance, a senior interactive multimedia major, has had an incredible experience working with the organization and helping get the acts to campus.
“There’s no other place like the Rat on campus,” Mance said. “A place … where people have the opportunity to let go, where people can make connections with like-minded individuals and actually feel like a part of something — a crowd, a community, a family.”
The Rat was enveloped with chaos once Citizen took the stage, immediately inducing a mosh pit.
Vocalist Mat Kerekes, guitarists Nick Hamm and Ryland Oehlers, drummer Jake Duhaime and bassist Eric Hamm, had kids running around on stage with them and diving into the crowd.
Citizen recently began The Greatest Generation World Tour with headliners The Wonder Years, alongside Modern Baseball, Real Friends and Fireworks.
The hardcore band played songs off their 2013 album, “Youth,” and 2012 album, “Young States,” including the songs “How Does It Feel?,” “Figured You Out” and “I Still Shut My Eyes.”
“If you know the words to the song come on stage and sing along,” Kerekes said.
The energy continued to rise in the Rat as the audience screamed the lyrics almost louder than the vocalist himself. Eric Hamm shredded so hard on his bass that after only two songs he began bleeding from his arm while Modern Baseball’s Ewald and Huber joined in and stage dived into the crowd.
Packed shows like this one make organizers like Mance glad to be so involved at the College.
“Music can change and save lives,” Mance said. “Here’s hoping that we’re bringing that potential experience to everyone we can.”
