USU students host Guitars Unplugged
The Taggart Student Center Ballroom was packed Friday night as 16 unplugged guitarists shared their talents to benefit service projects organized by the Mortar Board.
Utah State University’s chapter of the Mortar Board, a national honor society organization for seniors, sponsored the concert. Every year, 50 members are chosen to promote their focus of service, leadership and scholarship.
Guitars unplugged was part of an annual fundraising event whose proceeds go to funding the Mortar Board’s service projects. The cost was $3 per person, and $2 with a can of food. All of the food collected went to the Utah Food Bank.
Three hours of performances entertained the growing audience.
After the first few acts, members helping with the function needed to add more chairs to accommodate the audience.
Concert organizer Ryan Warner said about 30 guitarists auditioned to perform in the concert. Only half were chosen to perform.
“It is such a great relief to have this over with. I am stoked that it went so well,” Warner said.
Warner said he had been working on the event for weeks and can finally sleep soundly now that it is over and turned out to be a success.
The artists performed a variety of music from country to funk. One group even did a remix of Vanilla Ice’s early ’90s hit, “Ice Ice Baby.” Adam Sandler’s song about lunch ladies from Saturday Night Live was a hit with most of the audience.
“I really liked the Ice Ice Baby song – it was really funny,” psychology major Diana Hales said. Hales said she heard about the concert from her friends, and although she didn’t know any of the people performing, she had a lot of fun.
Hales and her friend, Ashley Steineckert, a junior in social work, said they decided to bring a can of food to save a dollar and give to the good cause.
“The whole room was packed with good-looking guys,” Hales said, “it made it that much better.”
Most of the acts were solo guitarists, but there were a few groups of two and three. One group, performing as the No Namers, added bongo drums to their act.
Love dominated the performances. Most of the songs performed by the aspiring artists were about a love had or a love lost.
The first artist, Mikki Grimley, performed a song she had written for her husband before they were married, when he was spending a year in Iraq.
The announcer for the show and member of the Mortar Board, Kyle Micheli, kept the audience entertained in between acts. He rapped and told stories that kept the audience laughing and applauding.
On a serious note, Micheli talked about an upcoming dodge-ball tournament sponsored by the Mortar Board that will benefit cancer patients in Cache Valley and the American Cancer Society and help make a wig for a single mother and student at USU who was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Micheli invited her onstage and took off his hat to reveal the bandanna he was wearing in her honor, and commended her on her strength in being a role model for others.
Brandi Lambert, a senior in interior design and member of the Mortar Board collecting money and food at the door, said the proceeds all go to funding service projects such as this.
Those that brought food items to the show were able to enter their names into a raffle for a prize. Five names were called before a winner was present to accept the prize.
Prizes were given in between acts to audience members who had stupid human tricks or that could fit a lot in their mouths.
The concert ended by a performance from Biff, Beaux and Hassen, who played three songs and went out with a “bomb.” Hassen, a member of the local band Hassenpheffer and the Bombdiggity, sang and played the spoons.
For more information on the Mortar Board or their upcoming events, visit www.usu.edu/mortarboard/.
-amking@cc.usu.edy