When the curtain falls on RamFest tonight after a performance by Jhené Aiko, it won’t be the end of the line for student-oriented live music on campus. It’s only the beginning.
The CSU football season begins this weekend at the new on-campus stadium, and students will have a dedicated space on game days to congregate and listen to performances by an impressive array of bands before kickoff.
Student leaders call it “The MOB,” borrowing a term that can refer to a gathering of sheep, or Rams.
Student input
The student fee-funded MOB was created by CSU’s student programming board, RamEvents, after conducting research about what students wanted on game days with the stadium on campus.
“It’s been a year in the making,” says senior Alexis Svenson, lead programmer for The MOB at RamEvents. “We’ve been doing market research, talking to students and formulating a plan. All of the work has been worth it.”
She and senior Jensen Woods, external relations/public relations coordinator for RamEvents, explained that student leaders chose the name “The MOB” after it was well-received in student focus groups. It’s a name the Los Angeles Rams football team and its fans used when adopting the moniker “Mob Squad.”
“We thought about how our defense plays and how we practice and stuff like that,” Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers told ESPN in 2015. “We might have looked on Wikipedia — which is a terrible source — but it said a flock of rams together is known as a mob. So we called ourselves the Mob Squad because we are a flock of Rams on the field.”
The Game Day festivities will begin four hours before kickoff on the Lory Student Center West Lawn, near the Lagoon. The bands Kind Dub and Flobots will perform Saturday at the inaugural MOB, beginning at 9:45 a.m. The Strange Americans have been booked for the second home game, on Sept. 9. The lineup is being made possible through CSU’s partnership with the Bohemian Foundation.
‘Stadium Sessions’
It’s all part of Stadium Sessions, a series of live musical performances on game-day weekends featuring more than 30 bands on three stages, including at the Iris & Michael Smith Alumni Center on Friday nights and Saturdays before kickoff.
The CSU Marching Band will also perform at The MOB after playing at Ram Walk, the procession of players to the stadium two and a half hours before kickoff. In addition to live music, the dedicated student space will feature street performers, field games and refreshments, creating a festive environment where students can celebrate until 45 minutes before kickoff, when they’ll proceed to the stadium. Students will be able to rent 10-square-foot tents at The MOB for free by reserving them online. A 20-foot-by-20-foot version is also available for $220.
“Now even those who don’t like football will have a place where they can catch that Ram spirit,” Svenson says. “The memories made at The MOB are going to last the rest of students’ lives.”
No alcohol will be sold at The MOB, although students 21 or older will be issued wristbands and may bring up to six cans of beer into the area, which will be patrolled by security.
For more information about tonight’s performance by Aiko, which features openers Eric Bellinger and Chaz French, visit lsc.colostate.edu/ramevents/.
For updates on the band lineup for the rest of the season at The MOB and other venues, stay tuned to stadiumsessions.colostate.edu.
About RamEvents
RamEvents is the “for students, by students” programming board of Colorado State University, operating out of the Campus Activities office in the Lory Student Center. As an inclusive programming board, RamEvents aims to meet the needs of CSU’s diverse student community by hosting a wide range of events, including live concerts, recognition for heritage and history months, lectures and comedy shows. Through these programs, such as RamFest, RamEvents seeks to provide CSU students with diverse and affordable events that both entertain and enrich the CSU experience. Follow RamEvents on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat @RamEventsatCSU.
