Pickard Theater will come alive tomorrow night as The Low Anthem and Jukebox the Ghost take the stage for the Entertainment Board's (E-Board) annual Winter Concert. Bowdoin's own Louis Weeks '11 will open for the two headliners, both of which are currently on tour.
Co-chairs of the E-Board David Gruber '11 and Morgan Andersen '12 both expressed confidence that the show would be a success.
The E-Board intended to bring lower-key, singer/song-writer groups, choosing to hire two smaller acts instead of a more popular, but expensive, band.
"It's better value for the money," said Andersen. "We get more show time, and both bands are really good."
The Low Anthem is an indie-folk band that has released two albums and has a third, "Smart Flesh," due to be released on February 22. The band performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 2009 and 2010 and has appeared on tour with several artists including Emmylou Harris and The Avett Brothers. This year they will tour with The Avett Brothers again, along with Iron and Wine. They also plan to appear at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Clearwater Festival this April and June, respectively. Their most popular single on iTunes is "Charlie Darwin."
Jukebox the Ghost has also released two albums, a single and an EP. On its website, the group describes itself as "energetic, crowd-pleasing, cathartic." The band is based in Philadelphia and has toured with acts including Ben Folds and Ra Ra Riot, in addition to its current tour with Hellogoodbye. Their most popular track on iTunes is "Empire," from their most recent album.
The E-Board works with an outside agent to coordinate and book acts that come to perform at Bowdoin. For this concert, the E-Board had a shortlist of five or six bands and made the final decisions based on the most compatible schedules and costs.
Gruber explained that the Student Activities Funding Committee gives the E-Board an operating budget every year, which loosely "allocates a certain amount of money for each event" that the E-Board plans.
Andersen added that the E-Board exercises discretion in deciding the precise breakdown of funds, and can opt to slightly downsize other events in order to save money for the larger Ivies concert.
"We're spending a little less than we were given on this, but not drastically," said Gruber.
Neither Gruber nor Andersen commented on the prospective lineup for Ivies. However, they did announce that The White Panda, scheduled to perform earlier this year before canceling at the last minute, rescheduled to perform at the College. It will perform on February 26 in Morrell Lounge.
The Winter Concert will start at 8 p.m. on Saturday, which Gruber described as "the best Saturday night back ever."