Sand and Sounds: Beta Beach
On Saturday, September 18, members of the Colgate community braved the cool weather for a summery escape at the annual Beta Beach concert, hosted by the fraternity Beta Theta Pi (Beta). The event was much-anticipated by many Colgate students and a lot of effort was put into preparing for the concert. Every year, Beta books big-name performers and manages to fill their 700 square-foot backyard with sand to accommodate the tropical theme. Not only was the event an opportunity for the new Greek recruits to celebrate after a nerve-wracking week waiting for bids, but it also provided the Colgate community with a chance to experience some big name performers.
Although the event was set to start at 8:00 p.m. most students didn’t arrive until around 9:30 p.m., leaving a few first-years and eager concert-goers with little to do for that time. The actual performance began around 10:00 p.m. with the Ying Yang Twins taking the stage around 11:00 p.m. Before then, students danced to Bob Marley and treated themselves to free sandwiches and soda; alcoholic beverages were available to those above the legal drinking age.
This year was especially exciting as Beta managed to book the Ying Yang Twins, with an opening by Jamie Drastik of Making the Band fame. Drastik’s act began with some remixes that held up well. He gave a shout out to Pitbull who has been helping guide him through the music industry. For his final song, he performed “You Just Like My Car,” from his soon-to-be-released album.
Most students, however, were anxiously waiting to hear the Atlanta-based rap duo, Ying Yang Twins. So eager, in fact, that multiple students got up on stage just to have the opportunity to touch one of the twins.
“I have never been so squished in my life,” first-years Athena Feldshon and Emily Kress said. “But touching a Ying Yang Twin’s shoe was totally worth all the elbows in my face.”
The Ying Yang Twins’s last album, Ying Yang Forever, was released in 2009. During their performance, they stuck to most of their hits from earlier in the decade.
Among these were the crowd-pleasers “Shake,” “Get Low,” “Salt Shaker” and “Badd.” Near the end of the concert, however, students became upset as the duo seemed to have stopped performing, barely using their microphones and instead resorted to playing short clips from current songs on the Top 40.
“I thought [Beta Beach] was a lot of fun, but it would have been more fun if [the Ying Yang Twins] had stuck to one song at the end [of the performance],” first-year Caitlin Whittemore said.
Not only did it seem as though they weren’t putting a lot of effort into their performance, it also made dancing difficult.
Overall, the concert was a great time to dance and hear music. Once again, Beta managed to pull off a great event. However, the Ying Yang Twins’s much anticipated performance was below par and hopefully their future shows will hold up better.