University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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I. music scene... by Chris [Ibanese Students at the University milled around campus with their headphones blasting in 2006. While some undoubtedly stuck to mindless-but-catchy Top 40 selections, such as Justin Timberlake ' s SexyBack or Ludacris ' s Moneymaker, for others, music was much more meaningful. Metal fan and LSA junior Aaron Osborn said, [Metallica] honestly changed my life. Ask anyone who knew me before and after. It ' s like I found myself. Osborn enjoyed live shows in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area; he had seen Mushroomhead in concert ten times. They ' re absolutely amazing showmen, Osborn said, and [they] put on the best shows I ' ve ever seen. Especially around Halloween. Absolutely brutal. I once moshed for 45 minutes straight at one of their shows. While Osborn was admittedly a champion of metal music, he acknowledged that other kinds of music could have potentially been important to other people. I ' ll often be seen ripping on certain types of music, he said, citing country and rap as examples of music he would rebuke. But I can recognize that all forms of music have some value. Even if I can ' t stand it and make fun of it, it probably means something to someone. Ann Arbor was a good place to see a concert, with a club scene offering jazz shows, rock, techno, house, metal, rap, traditional Celtic, and just about anything else anyone could come up with. At venues like The Ark, one could expect to sit comfortably and hear sophisticated performances, like violinist and superb whistler Andrew Bird or English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, at a reasonable volume. One could stand and see a rowdier but equally brilliant show at places like The Blind Pig, which featured Ghostface Killah one night, or The Heidelberg, which offered metal shows on occasion. The Michigan Theater and Hill Auditorium also hosted a variety of artists including Guster, a popular band with Michigan students, who played at Hill on November 7 th , 2006. Ann Arbor offered perhaps the most interesting music scene in all of Michigan, and University students were happy to enjoy it. Junior biopsychology and English major Cynthia Chen plays a concerto at Hill Auditorium accompanied by the Campus Symphony. Chen was given this honor for winning the prestigious and highly competitive Eugene Bogart Concerto competition. C. Chang photo Senior neuroscience major Antony Abraham performs a song at Potbelly ' s. Abraham played there every Friday evening. R. Peplinski photo michigan life 41