On Aug. 26, the John Carroll student population gathered to witness the annual Welcome Back concert hosted by the University Club. This year, the stage was taken by opening act Lisa Heller and the 2010 smash hit band 3OH!3.
Announced on Aug. 17th by the official University Club Instagram page, the band was voted upon by JCU students the past spring semester from an assortment of other artists, including Alec Benjamin and Echosmith.
In past years, artists like indie group COIN and country singer Granger Smith have headlined the event. The concert was held on the Hamlin Quad instead of on the Main Quad since it provides a more”festival like” atmosphere. Additionally, the event was earlier in the semester relative to the later fall of 2022 show from Granger Smith and the fall of 2021 performance from COIN. However, for U-Club Senior Event Coordinator Morgan Anderson ‘25, this was a great event to include the incoming freshman class on their very first week.
“I thought it was a really fun way to get students involved, especially first year students,” Anderson told The Carroll News. “I thought 3OH!3 was really fun and interactive.”
The show started with Heller at approximately 8 p.m. where she played multiple songs, including a cover of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” Later, 3OH!3 took the stage. In an interview earlier that day with The Carroll News, the group promised to deliver a stellar performance.
“We just like to make our shows a party, man,” 3OH!3 told The Carroll News. “Whether that’s on a TV performance or a college campus or in somebody’s sweaty basement where we started, it’s all the same to us. We enjoy just making people feel included, putting smiles on people’s faces.”
When asked about their musical influences, Nathaniel Motte from the group called their style a combination between the works of Kidz Bop and Elvis Presley. The band also said they were inspired by Lil John and Nine Inch Nails.
Regarding specific lyrics in their songs such as “shush girl, shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips,” Sean Foreman said that they like to “have fun” when creating their songs. This sense of amusement also carries over to their live performances, capitalizing on a sense of spontaneity when they take the stage.
“We’re not quite like the Grateful Dead, we don’t just riff things and jam out,” the group said. “We do like to just gauge [the crowd] and not have any preconceived notions of how things are gonna go. We have fun with that as it rolls out and interact with the crowd and make each show special. This show will be different, just like every show is different for us.”
Throughout the show, the band played multiple notable hits including “STARSTRUKK” and an acapella rendition of “All Star” by Smash Mouth. After initially leaving the stage following an hour long set, 3OH!3 returned to end the night with a performance of their hit song “DONTTRUSTME.”
“The artists had personality, involved the crowd and were just overall entertaining,” Hailey Sackoor ‘25, a student who attended the concert, told The Carroll News. “I love their music and the encore was perfection.”
After launching their setlists off of the stage in accordance with their anthem’s lyrics, 3OH!3 finished the show and started the academic year off on a fresh and exhilarating beat for the Blue Streaks.
