The air was not too hot and not too cold Thursday night. The crowd was in – some in groups, some in singles and some in couples. Vendors were outside setting up and selling merchandise. The bands were warming up, but most of all, the bugs were biting.
Thursday’s Homecoming concert featured Winter of ’74, Ndividuals and Gretchen as opening acts and the headline act Everclear. All the bands performed top notch and brought their “A” game to the stage. The crowd was lively and responded perfectly to the bands.
The Homecoming concert was indeed a success.
The night was supposed to start at 6 p.m. On the tickets, however, it said doors would open at 7 p.m. Word spread and a decent crowd showed up at the real start time, 6 p.m., for the first band, Winter of ’74.
After a quick introduction, they went straight into “My Room.” “My Room” sounds like a mixture of Coldplay and the Hive. Then they played “It’s Over” before performing other tracks that include a never before heard song and “Put This Thing Together.”
The crowd seemed to be into Winter. The guitarist Chris “The Kid” Mitchell was active, dancing around, shaking his hips and kissing the crowd. The front row crowd got a kick out of it, enjoying “The Kid’s” dances. Winter of ’74 capped off their stage performance with “All You’ve Got,” an up-beat tempo rock song.
“It was a good night … There were more people there than what we usually play for and it was nice to play for the crowd that size,” said Tim Smith, the drummer for Winter of ’74.
Smith said the band would definitively want to come back and perform at ETSU. Winter of ’74 hopes to work on new material and then perform in shows outside of Johnson City and Tennessee. They also plan to raise money to make a full length CD. You can see Winter of ’74 at Heather’s Hideaway Nov. 19.
In between acts was Johnson City’s very own DJ, 16-year-old DJ Blaze. Blaze provided music for the crowd as the band left the stage and as the crewmembers changed the stage for the next band.
Next was the hip-hop, rap group Ndividuals. By this time the crowd was starting to pick up more, and the Ndividuals did what they could to get the crowd into the concert. From time to time, they asked for crowd participation and their blend of hip-hop got the crowd dancing. They also gave away a free VIP pass to a Nov. 18 show. One lucky fan grabbed the pass when one of the band members threw it in front of the stage. Ndividuals did a solid job, as the night was a success.
For more information on Ndividuals you can go to their web site at www.Ndividuals.com.
After Ndividuals left the stage, DJ Blaze went back to work. It was at this point that the Cha-Cha slide flowed through the speakers, and I wondered if the Cha-Cha slide was still playable. Looking around and seeing how many people were actually doing the Cha-Cha slide, it became clear it was still around.
Gretchen hit the stage with one of the songs off their first CD, “Ordinary Girl.” Then Gretchen did their hard rock version of the Billy Idol song, “White Wedding.”
Gretchen rocked the crowd and received loud applause after every song.
They also preformed their hit song “Fading” and played more songs off their new CD In the Mean Time. Those songs included “Breathe,” “Lie to Yourself” and “Passion.” They performed a song inspired from the motion picture Bram Stoker’s Dracula called “Diamonds.”
Gretchen rocked the crowd with its fast, hard rock style. Gretchen left the stage with the crowd jumping and ready for more.
“It was a blast, a big blast,” said Dave Richards, Gretchen’s guitarist, the next day. “The crowd was huge, and we were excited. We had a super sound crew, and everyone that helped us was a professional. They were great.”
Right now, Gretchen has a few plans they are tossing around. They plan to shoot another music video, a Spanish version of their CD, a small six track acoustic CD and Gretchen also plan to have a new CD out by the middle of next year.
But as Dave mentioned, “Plans could change.” As of right now Gretchen plans touring in January, February and spring. Gretchen will be playing live in Morristown Dec. 17 at The Downtown.
For more information on concerts, CD’s and news, go to www.gretchenland.com. Richards asked anyone who took pictures to e-mail them to dave@gretchenland.com.
After the impressive opening, the crowd was set and fired up. At last, Everclear hit the stage.
Everclear opened with “Wonderful” and took off from there. They played their favorites including “Volvo Driving Soccer Mom,” “Heroin Girl” and “I Will Buy You a New Life.”
They also preformed their own softer version of CCR’s “Brown Eye Girl.” When Everclear left the stage the crowd chanted, “encore.” Sure enough, Everclear got back on stage to perform one more song.
The Homecoming Concert had it all — T-shirts, crowd surfing, crazy fans, bugs, rock, hip-hop and yes, even a little rain.
It’s safe to say the ETSU Homecoming Concert rocked.

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