Raggae legends Wailing Souls will open the April 16 Spring Fling concert on Hill Field. With Spring Fling only two weeks away, the Social Planning and Events Committee's Concerts Committee announced the booking of reggae legends Wailing Souls as the fourth band to grace the stage for this year's annual concert. The addition of the Grammy award-winning Wailing Souls to the Spring Fling band line-up lends further diversity to an already wide-ranging roster of artists for the April 16 show on Hill Field. The show already features skacore headliners the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and legendary hip-hop artists Run DMC, along with two up-and-coming New York punk groups -- D Generation and Clowns for Progress. Reggae fans may recognize Wailing Souls as one of the genre's elite foundation groups, with numerous hit singles and 16 albums released to date, including the October release Psychedelic Souls. The band, with their blend of soaring rock guitar, solid drums and bass beats, has been hailed as "the pre-eminent contemporary reggae group in Jah's creation," by Timothy White of Billboard magazine. Event organizers chose Wailing Souls in an attempt both to further diversify the concert and to find a musical bridge between the punk and ska sounds of D Generation, Clowns for Progress and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and the old school hip-hop of Run DMC. "We always intended to get a fourth band," said SPEC Concerts Committee Tri-Chairperson Jon Herrmann, a Wharton junior. He added that he and the other members of his committee "thought that reggae would be a good transition, aesthetically, from punk to hip-hop." Wailing Souls will be the fourth band on the main stage, along with the Bosstones, Run DMC and D Generation. Clowns for Progress will play the second Fling stage in the Quad. "We kind of wanted a buffer band," said Tri-Chairperson and Nursing senior Jocelyn Jennings, who described the inclusion of Wailing Souls as "not just a good transition but a whole new dimension to the show." Although the group's older albums have been likened to the familiar crooning of reggae great Bob Marley, their newer music has a decidedly rock 'n roll flare. Psychedelic Souls includes covers of tunes by The Doors, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, among others. Tickets for the Fling concert are on sale now on Locust Walk and are also available through the Annenberg Center box office. All tickets will be sold for $16 to those with valid Penn ID as long as they are purchased before the day of the show. The cost to the general public and to those students who buy their tickets on Friday, April 16, will be $20. Jennings stressed that students should buy their tickets early and also get to the show in time to see the opening acts. Wailing Souls will play after D Generation for approximately 45 minutes as a prelude to Run DMC, who will be followed by the Bosstones.
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