Recording artist Howie Day will collide with the Penn community on Oct. 7, according to the Social Planning and Events Committee's Concerts arm.
Day will give a live solo acoustic show in Irvine Auditorium at 8 p.m. The show is part of Day's upcoming 15-day music tour.
SPEC directors think this show will be a hit.
"Personally, I know several fans of Howie Day on campus, and his reputation is that he's pretty big among college students," Wharton and Engineering senior and SPEC Concerts co-Director Matt Mizrahi said. "We thought it would be great to bring him to Penn."
Mizrahi added that while SPEC Concerts has not had a fall show in years, it does have part of its budget reserved for such an event.
According to the Web site of Pretty Polly Productions -- which is producing the tour -- Day's price is $35,000. Mizrahi would not confirm whether Penn paid this amount.
SPEC Concerts spent $107,000 -- including $40,000 on talent -- on the Spring Fling concert last spring. Given the University budget of $60,000 for the concert and about $10,000 in ticket sales, SPEC lost about $37,000.
Day's music -- which includes hit song "Collide" -- is predominantly a mix of soft rock and folk, has toured with artists such as Sting, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band and Tori Amos. Solo artist Brandi Carlile will open for him when he performs at Penn.
Pretty Polly Productions President Howie Cusack said that Penn was tapped to be one of the stops because Day has yet to perform at some of the more "selective" schools in the Northeast. Day will also play at Harvard, Yale and Tufts, among others.
"We were also looking for schools that had certain venues and certain markets," Cusack said. "Penn struck us as a likely candidate, so you got yourself one heck of a deal."
At the age of 15, Day, a 24-year-old Maine native, traveled from one Boston coffeehouse to another playing his music. He independently released his first album, Australia, in 2000 and sold copies almost exclusively by word-of-mouth. In October 2003, he released his most recent album, Stop All the World Now, which includes a number of popular songs such as "She Says."
College senior Steph Bodnar, a Day fan since her junior year of high school, was thrilled to hear that Day will perform on campus.
"My older brother went to Boston College, and [Day] used to play there a lot before he was big," Bodnar said. "I bought his first CD on his Web site for like $9 because it wasn't sold in stores. That's how long I've been a fan."
Bodnar added that Day has given memorable performances the five times she has seen him live. "He has a looping pedal where he can record a sound like a drumbeat and then repeat it and layer his music as he plays on stage," she said.
Nursing junior Jen Morrison, who has seen Day in concert a few times, said that Irvine Auditorium is a great venue because of the intimate nature of Day's performances.
"He gets the audience to sing along, he starts talking to audience members and telling jokes," she said.
SPEC Concerts will start selling tickets for the show on Thursday, Sept. 22, on Locust Walk. Tickets will be $10 on the Walk and $12 at the door and will only be available to Penn students, faculty and staff.
SPEC Concerts will also be collecting supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims and aid workers in New Orleans before the show.
Last year's fall concert, featuring the Roots, was part of Penn President Amy Gutmann's inauguration festivities and not a regular SPEC Concerts event, Mizrahi said.
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