From the desk of FRIDAY NIGHT ROCK
Dartmouth College
Collis Center for Student Involvement
6181 Collis Center, Rm 303
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755


Dear April Thompson, Dave Newlove, and others,


We the undersigned are members of the student organization Friday Night Rock, attendees of FNR shows, or more generally supporters of what FNR does on campus. We are writing to you to affirm that we believe in FNR as a campus institution, a social space, and more specifically as an “alternative social space.” Given the ongoing construction of a new social space in 1953 commons, we are writing to you with the more specific purpose of assuring that this new space will fit in with the needs — technical and otherwise — of FNR events. FNR is excited and open to collaborating with the administration to make this space as useful as possible in fulfilling social needs of the student body.

In considering alternatives to Fuel when organizing shows this past fall, it became glaringly clear that the particulars of music shows demand many different specifications of a venue, thus limiting the potential range of options for a group looking to hold a concert at reasonable financial overhead. With the reconfiguration of Collis on the horizon, and possible reconfiguration of the College’s offerings for social venues on campus, we recognize the crucial importance of this new social space in the basement of 1953 commons given the uncertainty of Fuel’s continuation as a venue. We hope that the College recognizes the importance of continuing to support the ongoing success of FNR by furnishing a venue that fits FNR’s needs. Much has been said about alternative social spaces on campus, but few “alternative” options to the Greek scene have worked as well or as consistently as FNR has in recent years. As such, we are confident that, working alongside the College, FNR can continue to offer a robust array of programming in the new social space to be constructed in the basement of 1953 Commons.

An ideal venue for FNR’s needs would include:

1. APPROPRIATE SOUND TECHNICAL APPLIANCES AND SPECIFICATIONS. Designing a space to have good acoustics is an essential element of building a concert hall, small concert venue, or general use space. There is no way to do this properly without hiring a professional early in the design phase of the space, so that the sound system doesn’t end up as an afterthought. For FNR we’re looking for a system that has been designed with the expectation that it will frequently be used for live rock shows. Ben Blier ’13, who is the student tech manager, could help administrators find solid professional support to make the space as properly equipped for a concert as possible.
Additionally, having a sound booth is important to protect the equipment that the sound engineer uses during the show. More generally, FNR would love to work with the College to ensure that the room is constructed with acoustics in mind, and that the materials used for walls and ceiling are befitting a professional music venue.

2. A BAR AREA AND APPROPRIATE FURNISHINGS FOR OTHER BEVERAGES AND SNACKS. FNR has always conducted alcohol events safely, consistently taking SEMP procedures and alcohol safety seriously. For FNR to offer an adequate social space to many different sectors of campus, an area that allows FNR to appropriately distribute alcohol to of-age students is central to effective programming. Refrigerator space is also crucial, allowing us to offer non-alcoholic beverages like soda and bottled water to underage students and to students who choose not to drink alcohol.

3. PROPER VENUE ACCESS AND EXIT/ENTRY SYSTEMS. Music acts often bring with them a great deal of music instruments and equipment, and students help musicians load their equipment into the venue in preparation for each show. This means that direct access to the venue from the street is critically important. Further, in order to properly monitor fluxes of attendees in accordance with SEMP, FNR would like to ensure that any new venue created would be capable of controlling all entries and exits so that entry and exit of concert attendees is properly managed.

4. GREEN ROOM SPACE. The effective conduct of FNR shows requires a dedicated space that serves as a “green room” for musicians, which would be connected to or very close to the venue being created in the basement of 1953 commons. Professional music performance venues offer traveling musicians a “green room” space — essentially, a back room — for them to relax and prepare before performances, as well as to secure their personal belongings. In the past, FNR has had to offer odd rooms in Collis that are far removed from Fuel and do not properly fulfill the function of a green room for performers. As FNR brings in talented, nationally touring acts, the closer performers’ experience is to what is expected of other professional venues, the better FNR’s image becomes, in the eyes of talent agents, musicians, and the other figures in the close-knit music industry. If performers are not surprised by sub-par conditions, it is also more likely that the concert experience and musician-student interactions will be more positive. Rob Szypko ’12, the booking manager for FNR, has experience dealing with musicians and talent agents, and would be more than willing to consult with the administration to make the new space as professional as possible.

5. A STAGE AREA. An elevated stage would accomplish several things. First, it would make the performance more accessible to all attendees, offering audience members in the back the opportunity to see the performers and making the performance more positive for all involved. Second, it would make the performance safer for the musicians’ equipment — a raised stage places the musicians’ equipment out of harms way as students dance. Third, as with the green room space, a raised stage would meet the expectations musicians hold concerning professional music venues. This addendum, again, improves the image of FNR to their talent agents and to musicians themselves, allowing FNR to continue improving the programming it can bring to campus.

6. PROPER VENTILATION TO ACCOMMODATE CONCERT ATTENDEES. Not only should ventilation accommodate the heat created by an expanded audience (contrasted to the smaller audience required by the fire capacity of FUEL), it should also account for the guaranteed scenario that all of those attendees are dancing and creating even more body heat. Current FNR shows in Fuel can become extremely hot and humid due to improper ventilation, particularly as students are dancing and enjoying the show. This can make the experience for all involved less pleasant, and odor might become a problem for subsequent groups using the space.

7. WOODEN FLOOR. A wooden floor offers a more positive dance space for concert attendees, as it is more comfortable to dance on and would thus improve the overall student experience. It would also generally create a more welcoming atmosphere than a tile or concrete floor.

8. NEARBY BATHROOMS AND WATER FOUNTAIN. With the high numbers of student attendees FNR typically accommodates, having facilities far away from the performance space would be extremely detrimental to the experience of all involved. Further, performers require water during shows, as they become dehydrated while performing, and in the interest of forging an environmentally sustainable and economically frugal solution, a water fountain would allow FNR to offer water to musicians without purchasing water bottles or other nonrenewable and costly resources.

9. LIGHTING SYSTEM. All serious venues have a lighting system for performances — having the house lights on makes for an awkward music experience, and turning all of the lights off is dangerous. Colored light systems are crucial for the enjoyment of students and makes the performance seem, again, more professional. The lighting system in a concert venue should be a DMX controlled system with dimmable, conventional lighting instruments and ideally a suite of effect lights (lasers, colored, moving lights, etc). To ensure that the system is friendly to the average person using the space, it is important that it supports recalling preset settings which have been programmed for expected uses of the space.

Even in the event that Fuel continues to exist, Friday Night Rock has room to grow. There has been a noticeable increase in student attendance at our shows in recent terms, and with greater influxes of attendees but unchanging venue space, problems arise. A combination of different sized venues — Fuel and the yet-to-be-built space in 1953 Commons — would allow FNR to diversify its offerings in programming, and would allow FNR to put on even bigger events than it currently does. This would make events more inclusive (anecdotally, there are cases where students show up to FNR to enjoy a show, but leave if it seems to crowded or hot) and more capable of accommodating a substantial portion of campus that seeks alternative social offerings or that simply seeks to enjoy and support a wide range of live music acts.

Importantly, many of the things we list here are not exclusive to FNR. Wooden floors benefit dance groups seeking practice space, raised stages benefit student-run theater groups, and a bar area supports a wide range of student programming that seeks to offer alcohol to of-age students, just to cite a few examples. The effective construction of the social space in the basement of 1953 Commons, should it accommodate our requests, would benefit a wide range of student groups. We do not aim to monopolize this new space, but rather, we realize that FNR can collaborate with the administration to ensure that the venue suits FNR events and a wide array of other groups’ needs.

We recognize the positive impact that FNR has on Dartmouth’s social scene and want this success to continue. We hope that the College also recognizes the importance of FNR by working with us to make the new social space in 1953 Commons a success. Attached to this letter, as an addendum, is a list of all FNR managers and their email addresses — FNR managers are completely open to consulting with the administration, and would love to work on this new space together.

Signed,