And 75% of Attendees Bought a CD! Last night I went up to Catonsville, Maryland to see Love Syndicate, a kind of folk-funk band. I should, in the interest of full disclosure, point out that their bass player is my younger brother, C---s. The band was playing in a spiffy new student center at UMBC. No matter how spiffy, it was clearly not a hip-hop-happening place to be on a Sunday night. Attendance was... ahem... spotty.

Part of this (most of this) wasn't Love Syndicate's fault. The room they were supposed to play in was double-booked, so the folks who came by at their advertised starting time were treated to a roomful of academics eating pizza, which, while no doubt entertaining, is not what you expect to get out of a folk/funk band from Philadelphia. The band started an hour later than advertised, and despite the snafus and so on, delivered an excellent set, starting with one of the songs that garners applause at the first riff, Sense of You. (I should say, when their fan base is there, it garners applause. As Josh, the lead guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter, said, "We told a lot of people in Philadelphia about this show... they're still in Philadelphia.")

In any case, mad kudos to Love Syndicate for delivering a great show to a tiny number of people. Hey, they'll be back at UMBC for Quadmania on April 27th, with Busta Rhymes headlining--since that's supposed to be attended by thousands of students, I bet they'll make a lot of new fans.