When I first applied to this university, I was promised that Penn would give me an “experience like no other.” Unlike students at Yale, for example, I won’t have to sit through lectures from Tony Blair. Unlike those at Harvard, Princeton and even Brown, I won’t have to pay less for my education. And perhaps best of all, I won’t have that nagging responsibility to cheer for a basketball team come late March like Cornell does did this year.

So far, so good: up until now, my life at Penn has been unquestionably unique, an experience like no other indeed. That is, until earlier this morning — when I saw the front page of the DP touting this unfortunate headline: “OK Go announced as third Fling band.” Suddenly I felt gypped, swindled, even betrayed. Let me explain.

This April, you see, will not be OK Go’s first appearance at Spring Fling. Just six short years ago, they played their first Fling gig in eerily similar fashion to next month’s concert: they were the show’s opening act; they played at Franklin Field; and their accompanying lineup was almost identical.

Back in 2003, the four Spring Fling performers (presented in order of then-fame) were as follows: Busta Rhymes, Jurassic 5, The Donnas and OK Go. That year’s headliner, Busta Rhymes, is almost identical to this year’s Ludacris. Granted, Busta is more likely to drive drunk. And beat people up. And carry a machete (?!?) in the trunk of his car. But just like Luda today, Busta circa ‘03 was a good rapper with all of his best work well behind him.

That leads us to Jurassic 5, the six-years-ago equivalent of Gym Class Heroes: an indie rap group on the cusp of major stardom. Then come The Donnas, the only glitch in SPEC’s near-perfect rehashing of 2003’s Fling lineup. (Good news for OK Go: they’ve graduated from fourth act to third act in just six short years. Who knows where they’ll be come 2020…)

Look, SPEC, it’s not as if I don’t like OK Go or Gym Class Heroes. And I think we’ll all be surprised at just how many of us know every single lyric to “What’s Your Fantasy.” But I wanted my Penn experience to be utterly distinct, and now I feel as if my sophomore Spring Fling is no more than a repeat of 2003. So maybe this year’s concert should carry the same title as Luda’s breakthrough album: “Spring Fling ‘08: Back for the First Time.”

Tags: machetes, OK Go, Tony Blair

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Ivy League, Penn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.