Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: Jesse DeFlorio/Greyhound Loyolapalooza headliner, State Radio, sings politically charged reggae style music.

If the debauchery of Craigsfest (the fastest-growing annual ripoff) did not leave you clinging to your bed praying for death, then you may have taken a walk out to the on quad on Sunday, April 27, to see your tuition money at work. Each year, Loyolapalooza marks the closing of the spring semester with free food, drinks, music and a ton of giant inflatable death traps, and this year was no different.

Though the weather was cold and overcast (it did indeed seem to keep some people at home, further proving a large percentage of Loyola students believe that they may melt in the rain), the students that did come out were in for a great afternoon on the quad.

For this year's senior class, the past spring music fest legacy is as follows: Straylight Run and Dashboard Confessional, Blues Traveler, The Format and Guster. This year rounded out the string of famous performers with State Radio and Matt Nathanson.

In year prior, a precedent has been established that the two headlining bands generally played back-to-back sets. This years' logistical change, the placement of Jump the Gun between State Radio and Nathanson, however, proved to be a substantially strategic rearrangement; it gave the fan favorite student band the opportunity to play in front of a larger crowd for their last show together.

State Radio, formed by Chad Urmston (the former lead singer of Dispatch), is a power rock trio with reggae influences. State Radio brought to the stage slashing guitars and chaotic gyration, something not typically seen in past Dispatch shows.

Becoming more politically active in the past few years, Urmston has separated himself from other Jam-style band musicians who simply turn up the distortion and crank up overt liberal rhetoric. The band takes a strong stand on the issues they believe in, allowing their art to act as a forum for their message. State Radio lyrically infuses their songs with both hope and meaning, the result of which allows them to transcend divisive boundaries that might otherwise polarize their music.

Furthermore, the band has attempted to not only change societal ills through music but through action as well. State Radio has recently become involved in the national struggles of Zimbabwe, particularly the corrupt and seedy election practices currently taking place throughout the country. In this way, the band has used its popularity as a positive means of promoting awareness.

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