Cobra Starship and newcomer Outasight performed a free concert at the Bryce Jordan Center in association with the Student Programming Association for the “truth” campaign last night.
What should have been a full house concert turned out to only cater to an amount of students who could have easily fit in Alumni Hall.
Patricia McLaughlin, assistant vice president of communications for Legacy, was excited for the non-smoking campaign to hit Penn State as the first stop of their college tour.
Earlier in the afternoon the orange “truth” truck was set up in the East dorms quad where “truth” tour-riders gave out t-shirts and other free gear while passersby learned more about the tobacco market.
One “truth” tour rider, Gabriel Fernandez, traveled throughout the summer to venues like Vans Warped tour, promoting the non-smoking cause through this grass roots movement.
Vans Warped tour was the link between “truth” and Cobra Starship. The two met up at Vans Warped Tour and began their collaboration for this mini college tour hitting five colleges in the East Coast and South McLaughlin said.
Ryland Blackinton, guitarist for Cobra Starship, talked about the importance of reaching an audience for a cause and compared their performance to subliminal messaging.
“It’s a cool opportunity and we as a band are not afraid to be associated for a cause since we have been linked to charities before, like the Starkey Hearing Foundation,” Ryland said.
Outasight, a newcomer in the music biz, is known for his hit “Tonight is the Night” which has been featured in a Pepsi advertisement and is performing for the ‘truth’ campaign because of a friendship with Gabe Sapporta, frontman of Cobra Starship.
“I’m good friends with Gabe and we have done shows before,” Outasight said, “I have a bigger hip-hop influence than Cobra Starship but we both share that ‘dance-pop’.”
After a solid set by a DJ, Outasight started the night with lots of energy, jumping around the stage in his sunglasses, denim jacket and bringing a Mike Posner kind of vibe.
Though Outasight is awaiting the release of his debut album in November, he was still able to have the crowd dancing and getting hyped up for the main act. He also had sufficient amounts of positive tweets from the audience sent out to him on Twitter.
Cobra Starship hit the stage about thirty minutes later and started out with their hit “Good Girls Go Bad,” while Saporta sported his usual smirk and “Greased Lightning”-esque hair while twirling the microphone.
“Thanks for choosing to see us over the presidential debate,” Saporta said, “we wanna see it too.”
Perhaps the first night of the presidential debates coinciding with the concert kept many students from coming out.
Nonetheless, Cobra Starship gave a energy filled performance complete with Blackinton performing some crazy guitar skills.
Cobra Starship continued to play their hits like “Hot Mess” and “Middle Finger” which also featured Penn State favorite, Mac Miller.
