What was your favorite campus concert?

From Bob Dylan in ’64 to The Front Bottoms in ’14, TCNJ has brought in some sweet acts through the years. We asked readers to tell us what shows rocked the most.

Words by TCNJ Editorial Staff

From Bob Dylan in ’64 to The Front Bottoms in ’14, TCNJ has brought in some sweet acts through the years. We asked readers to tell us what shows rocked the most.

Here are their stories—and their ticket stubs:

The Isley Brothers
The show, in Phelps Hall cafeteria, was either in fall 1964 or winter 1965.
By then the group had had two singles on the charts: “Shout” and “Twist and Shout.” I remember the band members all wore white suits and sang and danced on a long, elevated stage, while the crowd sang and danced below them. A few years later, I realized that Jimi Hendrix had played with the band during that period. Was he with them that night at the college? I can’t be sure. Regardless, this was the most memorable show of the many I saw on campus between 1963–67.

—Betty Schmitt Busch ’67

3/0

Number of votes, respectively, for Vanilla Ice and Bruce Springsteen as the greatest concert ever held at TCNJ.

10

Percentage of respondents who sent ticket stubs from their favorite campus concert.

1

Number of signed mementos submitted. Tommy Conwell’s “I’m Not Your Man” was in heavy rotation on MTV when the singer played the Rec Center in 1989.
Conwell hung out with students after the show, says Jeff Horowitz ’90, who scored the Philly native’s autograph.

This is what they had to say…

The Ramones (1982). They came onstage to the music from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Then Dee Dee shouted, “One, two, three, four!” and the room went from dark and quiet to sun-like brightness and bone-crushing volume. It was the coolest rock-and-roll experience of my teenage life.

—Randy Marsola ’90

The Kinks (1977), with Ray Davies wearing those crazy masks were truly great. And who could forget seeing Bonnie Raitt for 25 (or was it 50?) cents when she first started? Truly amazing.

—Pamela Rudin Smith ’75

Bob Dylan (1964). After the show, my friends and I were returning to our car when we met some guys on their way back from a Princeton game. One of them, Frank, became my future husband. When people ask us how we met,
I always say, “Bob Dylan introduced us.”

—JoAnn Maestreli Donlon ’67, MEd ’77