Anderson Center Packed for Mac Miller Concert

By KATELYN LEBOFF

Strobe lights and loud music rocked the Anderson Center on, April 23, from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. for the Mac Miller concert. Doors opened at 7 p.m. as a huge crowd was ushered in and through security, and the Mac fans just kept coming. UMW students got access to the concert for a steal with tickets only $5 for students but $20 for non-students.
The Cool Kids and The Come and Up started the party at around 8 p.m. with some good tunes. The opening acts seemed to keep the crowd dancing, but it was obvious the crowd was restless for the main event, Mac Miller, as part of the Macadelic Tour.
It was a pretty impressive showing for Mary Washington as “Mac Miller” McCormick is now a popular freestyle rapper and hip-hop enthusiast. He started his superstardom in July 2010 inking a deal with Rostrum Records and has been soaring ever since his signing.
“The sky is the limit for this 19-year-old Pittsburg Native,” according to Source Magazine. HipHopDx labeled Mac as “The Steel City’s next superstar.”  Mac took the stage just after 9:30 p.m., bringing with him wild excitement from the crowd that had been so eagerly awaiting his stage appearance.
He got a lot of laughs when he told the audience how he and his crew had spent the day in Fredericksburg before the big concert.  “We went to Spotsylvania mall.  Shout out to Muvico! We went bowling.  I won.  We saw Wrath of the Titans.”
Mac had the crowd rocking to his most popular tunes first, including “Lucky Ass Bitch,” “Donald Trump,” “Party on Fifth Ave,” “Wear My Hat,” “Smile Back,” “Best Day Ever,” and “Senior Skip Day.”
UMW students complained about the amount of outside attendees at the concert, especially high school students.
Kurt Wall, sophomore, agreed that it seemed like there were a good number of high school kids at the concert. His sister, who he invited to the concert for her 18th birthday, joined him.
He admitted that though he and his sister enjoyed the concert, he noticed a lot of people were just standing around.
Wall also said that “the performance by Mac Miller was OK, but the concert was still fun.  Mac Miller is just not the greatest performer.”
Giant Productions’ President, senior Justin Thompson, had an enlightening perspective.  Thompson estimated the total ticket sales to be about 1,200. The majority of the presales were to UMW students, about 800 tickets sold.
In total, Thompson, who was also working box office the night of the concert, pegged the student to public ratio of attendees to be about 60 percent student sales to 40 percent sales to the public.  Also, with shows as big as Mac Miller, Giant Productions really has to open them up to the public, Thompson stated.
Thompson laughed, and said, “It just felt like there were a million non-Eagles there, mainly the high schoolers, because we [college kids] noticed their presence more.”
According to Thompson, he had never seen the Anderson Center that full, not even at homecoming when Taking Back Sunday played.  He guessed the crowd size for the night to have been around 1,000 or more attendees.
Despite the qualms about the number of high school attendees, Wall and many other Eagles agreed that it was a hell of a way to spend a Monday night.