Stress runs rampant among college kids this time of year, but the Door to Dorm tour, the College
Mega tour and Campus Invasion Music Festival are aiming to give students some springtime musical relief.
Hinder will headline the Door to Dorm outing, which hits 17 colleges and three music festivals starting April 13 at the
University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown, Pa.
The group’s drummer, Cody Hanson, jokes that nonstop worldwide touring for its 2005 album “Extreme Behavior” has made the quintet “severe alcoholics,” but that won’t prevent the Oklahoma City act from throwing a party for its hardcore college fan base. “Whenever we get too tired we just have another drink and continue on,” he says. “We’re having a good time, and that’s what we’re about.”
About 75% of college-focused tours run during the spring, when nine out of 10 colleges are looking to buy talent for year-end blowout events. In most cases, student-run committees seek high-energy acts to place outdoors in festival-type settings, gyms, auditoriums, ballrooms, theaters or arenas.
As with the fourth annual College Mega tour, which features a diverse lineup of rapper Talib Kweli, pop/punk act Sugarcult and former Something Corporate guitarist William Tell, Door to Dorm will beef up concert dates by leading with all-day on-campus activities like obstacle courses, giveaways, games and artist meet-and-greets. Door to Dorm, which will also boast Papa Roach and Puddle of Mudd on select dates, is charging
$20-$25 per ticket.
For the College Mega tour, which starts April 7 at the
House of Blues in Las Vegas and wraps May 5 at Johnson & Wales
University in Providence, R.I., tickets will cost up to $20 in some markets and will be given away for free in others, depending on the school.
Also serving a diverse college-targeted roster is this year’s first Campus Invasion Music Festival, which boasts the
Shins, Dashboard Confessional and Fabolous as headliners for all-day festivals in Austin, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Other acts include Gym Class Heroes, the Academy Is . . ., K-OS,
Augustana, the Rapture and Shiny Toy Guns.
The mtvU-backed event follows in the footsteps of the decade-old MTV Campus Invasion tour, which brought exposure to such acts as Muse, Moby, Wyclef Jean and Hoobastank.