Toad’s Place was packed wall to wall for the Barstool Sports-sponsored event, Stoolapalooza, on Sunday night.
The concert featured local acts 1-2 Kidz, tAllent, Scott Danuliuk, and 1st Class, with Quinnipiac senior Colin “DJ Tanner” Wilkinson deejaying the whole night. Boston-based rapper Sam Adams was the headliner.
According to David “El Pres” Portnoy, both the Providence and New Haven shows sold out, and he is confident that the rest will too.
“Toad’s is already sold out for tomorrow and I’m 100 percent positive every place we go is going to sell out too,” Portnoy said in his blog. “We probably had 2,000 people get shut out at Lupos trying to get tickets at the door, and I’ve already gotten a shit-ton of e-mails from people begging for tickets to Toad’s.”
The night kicked off at a pre-party event at a local house in Hamden, where concert-goers had the opportunity to meet Portnoy and play beer pong before taking a VIP bus to Stoolapalooza later that night.
“We just knew it was going to be a ridiculous party that we wouldn’t miss for anything else,” junior Kevin Dawber said of the pre-party.
Doors opened at 7:30 p.m., and within the hour Toad’s Place was filled with students not only from Quinnipiac, but Yale and Sacred Heart, along with locals from the Greater New Haven area.
The crowd grew restless as the opening acts’ performances lasted more than two hours, keeping Adams off the stage until nearly 11 p.m.
University of Rhode Island sophomore Jaymie McCanna made the trip down to New Haven just to see Adams perform, and was disappointed with the wait.
“It was a pretty crazy show–kind of frustrating how long [Sam Adams] took to come on, but DJ Tanner did a great job keeping the crowd hyped up for the show,” she said. “When he finally did come on, he didn’t disappoint. It was just all around so much fun and definitely all it was built up to be – definitely worth coming down for.”
Wilkinson received an overwhelming amount of QU support through e-mails and blog posts, and succeeded in keeping the crowd pumped up for Adams.
“They were all really into it, which helped me get into it,” he said. “Such an amazing energy in the place.”
Junior Dina Celeste agreed.
“I really liked the energy in Toad’s,” she said. “Everyone was just so excited to be there and get crazy.”
The audience pushed right up against the speakers and pumped their fists as Adams opened up his set with “Comin’ Up.” He performed other songs off his debut album, “Boston’s Boy,” including “Tab Open” and “Coast 2 Coast,” and also “Pokerface (Remix)” and “Heads Will Roll (Remix).”
The crowd responded the most to “Driving Me Crazy” and crowd favorite “I Hate College (Remix),” which Adams performed again for the encore.
“Bottom line is Stoolapalooza is rapidly becoming the toughest ticket to get in New England,” Portnoy said of the concert’s continued success. “Deal with it.”
Photo credit: Nicole Celli
