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Indie rock fans rejoice 鈥� Death Cab For Cutie are coming to Dalhousie.
The acclaimed rock group, whose most recent album Narrow Stairs debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, will be playing a private concert at the McInnis Room on April 3. Dalhousie was awarded the concert for winning the Campus Battle '09 contest presented by Rogers in partnership with Live Nation, which pitted universities from across Canada against one another to see which could earn the most support on Facebook relative to their size. Voters totaling聽over 15聽per cent of the university student population supported Dal; that鈥檚 almost double the closest competitor.
Kris Osmond, DSU VP Student Life, explains that the DSU put a lot of effort into getting the vote out, from postering around campus to promotion on Facebook itself. Ultimately, though, they credit school spirit with Dalhousie鈥檚 overwhelming success.
鈥淒eath Cab are a band that we鈥檇 love to have on campus, but we could never have afforded to bring here on our own,鈥� he explains, noting that this is the second such contest that Dal won this year. The university also prevailed in Telus鈥� 鈥淪ecret Show鈥� event that gave the campus a free Joel Plaskett Emergency show. 鈥淐ompetitions like these show a different side of our school spirit here at Dal: we love our music, and we鈥檙e willing to pull together to bring great music to campus.鈥�
Shane Simms, a third-year management student who works at the SUB info desk, is about as big a Death Cab fan as it gets. He even has the cover art from the band鈥檚 Transatlanticism album on his forearm. He spent the past few weeks cajoling his friends to all sign up for the contest so that Dalhousie would win the concert.
鈥淭hey have such great pop songs, and their old stuff isn鈥檛 lame like most mainstream pop,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e pretty great.鈥�
While Rogers did not disclose how many people voted in total across Canada, they offered praise for Dalhousie鈥檚 efforts. 鈥淐ampus Battle is one more example of our commitment to music and the community,鈥� said Daniel Ewing, manager, music partnership with Rogers Wireless. 鈥淩ogers Wireless congratulates Dalhousie on their win.鈥�
Rogers will be prizing tickets聽via a random draw to people who voted for Dalhousie in the Campus Battle contest. If you don鈥檛 win tickets, or if you didn鈥檛 vote in the contest, you鈥檙e not out of luck yet: local radio station Z103 will be awarding a number of tickets to listeners during the weeks of March 16 and 23.