B.o.B brings magic to Milledgeville

Musical guests Stokeswood, Playboy Tre and B.o.B turn the Centennial Center into a dance party for Homecoming

Milledgeville’s Centennial Center hosted a Grammy-nominated musician for Georgia College’s Homecoming concert on Feb. 19. B.o.B. headlined a show for Georgia College students and the local community. The opening act Stokeswood is based locally in Milledgeville and performed at the 2010 Deep Roots Festival. After Stokeswood’s and before B.o.B.’s performance Playboy Tre took the stage.

Between Stokeswood, Playboy Tre and B.o.B. many students felt that it was a good mix of music genres for the crowd to enjoy.

“I think that both crowds were satisfied,” freshman business major Oliver Blackburn said.

Attendance was up from the 2010 Homecoming concert as around 4,000 concertgoers filled the seats and the floor despite earlier confusion about tickets for the concert. With every ticket being free including the limited number of tickets for the community and non-students, many felt that the concert was worth the cost.

“Stokeswood played seven or eight, maybe more songs. I mean, they played a good bit. I figured that B.o.B. wouldn’t play as long because they were just taking up time but he played really long. I was surprised,” Blackburn said.

Freshman physics major Patrick Dowling agreed.

“For how many songs he (B.o.B.) played it was a deal, too,” Dowling said.

Stokeswood started the concert and tried to build the energy.

“I heard Stokeswood at Deeproots and I knew that they were going to be kind of cool. They weren’t my kind of music but they were cool,” sophomore middle education major Ashli Dills said.

However, some of the crowd grew impatient with Stokeswood and began to chant ‘B.oB.’ over the music.

“They (Stokeswood) even said something like ‘Are y’all ready for B.o.B.?’ and everybody was going crazy,” Blackburn said. “Of course you are, but you still give them respect. I mean, they’re up there.”

The energy picked up as Playboy Tre took the stage to perform songs on his own, but a delay between Playboy Tre and B.o.B. left the crowd waiting and it suspended the energy.

“There were a lot of awkward, annoying pauses between each band which was frustrating,” junior rhetoric major Meredith Nelson said.

B.o.B. recently performed at the Grammys and discussed how the national stage is different from local shows.

“When you’re performing on stage like tonight I can move around. On TV you have to be more controlled. I felt like tonight it was very high energy and that’s something as a performer that you appreciate tremendously. The energy of the crowd is like the gas in the car. It’s definitely a direct connection between the crowd and the performer,” B.o.B said.

Taking advantage of his freedom B.o.B. fueled the crowd’s energy when he took a surprise stage dive into the crowd. He didn’t go far before he fell into the crowd and had to be helped out.

“I feel like it would have been better if he had warned people. He was just kind of like ‘put your hands up,’ sophomore sociology major Taylor Callihan said.

After the show, B.o.B talked about the stage dive.

“I got a lot of air. I got a chance to stretch out. I just wanted to make sure everybody was ok. I usually end up losing the most in the stage dive,” B.o.B. said.

Being in his home state of Georgia B.o.B. commented, “it went very well tonight. I have to say this is one of the most memorable shows I’ve ever done in Georgia. I definitely feel like Milledgeville showed out tonight.”

B.o.B. played only a few of his well-known songs early on choosing to play more off his newest mix tape.

“I liked how he played a lot of his new songs off his ‘No Genre’ mix tape,” Dowling said.

“B.o.b was great even though I didn’t know most of the early songs it was still entertaining,” Callihan said.

B.o.B. saved his most popular songs for his encore. Some of the audience left before the encore thinking the concert was over.

“The last four songs which B.O.B. played were the radio hits which it what we were all there for. People needed to stick it out,” Nelson said.

B.o.B. said he feels at home among the college crowd.

“I feel more comfortable performing at colleges because I feel like I’m in my age group. I feel like I’m performing with the people I went to school with,” B.o.B. said. “It feels more like a party and less like a job.”