GCSU hosted its annual Spring Concert with band Wallows headlining alongside openers Medium Build and Battle of the Bobcats winner, Subatomic. The concert took place at the Centennial Center, with doors opening at 7 p.m. and music starting shortly after.
During Homecoming week, students voted from a long list of artists on who they wanted to perform at the 2025 Spring Concert. The list consisted of artists like Role Model, Neon Trees, T-Pain and many more.
The concert’s artists, officially announced on the Friday of homecoming week, were to be Wallows and Medium Build. Tickets were sold at GCSU The Den for the low price of $20 each.
Wallows is a popular indie boy band fronted by Dylan Minnette, famous for his role as Clay Jensen in the Netflix show “13 Reasons Why.” The band has popular hits like “Are You Bored Yet?” featuring Clario, “Remember When,” “Pleaser” and “Calling After Me.”
With the doors opening, students who were eager to see Wallows had the opportunity to score barricade spots directly in front of the stage. For those who did not wish to stand the entirety of the concert, there was seating available on the sides of the pit area.
GCSU’s very own Subatomic opened the night with performances of original songs and concluded their set with “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies.
Cole Smith, a sophomore psychology major and guitar player in Subatomic, detailed what the band tends to lean towards when it comes to the covers they play or where their inspiration for originals stems from.
“I think when it comes to covers, we kinda just play grunge kind of music and that’s where our inspiration for a lot of our music comes in,” Smith said. “I know Will [bass guitar player] and I take a lot of inspiration from a band called Julie [..] and indirectly from Julie we get some Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and maybe a little Slowdive.”
As the winner of Battle of the Bobcats, a GCSU music competition that took place earlier this year, the band was given the opportunity to be an opener for the concert.
“When we finished the whole Battle of the Bobcats process, I don’t think any of us were really expecting us to win just because there were a lot of great bands there,” said Kat Vassileva, a sophomore environmental science major and guitar player of Subatomic. “So when our name was called, it was more like an ‘Oh my god’ is this real-type moment and then I think we were all just really excited.”
The concert’s second opener, Medium Build, opened the show by discussing his own experience growing up in Georgia and his encounters with GCSU in the past. Medium Build is an indie/alternative band with popular songs like “Never Learned to Dance,” “Crying Over U” and the collaboration with Boygenius member Julien Baker, for their song “Yoke.”
“I thought they [Subatomic and Medium Build] were really cool,” said Odeya Atar, a sophomore biology major. “I had never seen either of them perform, so I was really looking forward to it. I even told my friend I had to go early because I’m gonna be in the pit and watch them perform.”
Shortly after the opener’s sets, Wallows made their way to the stage, opening with “Anytime, Always,” then transitioning to “Scrawny.”
“I thought it was absolutely insane that we were able to get such a cool experience for such a low cost too,” Atar said. “I’m more of a casual listener, but it was so awesome. Like, what do you mean Wallows was in Milledgeville? This was incredible.”
Wallows’ setlist consisted of older songs like “Quarterback,” “These Days,” “Sun Tan,” “Uncomfortable,” and newer songs like “Bad Dream” and “I Don’t Want to Talk.”
Highlights of the night include Cole Preston, the drummer of Wallows, calling GCSU “Georgia State and College University.”
The concert concluded with “Are You Bored Yet?”, the most popular and well-known song out of Wallows’ discography.
“Fabulous, fabulous, you know I’m just happy if y’all [students] are happy,” said Cathy Cox, President of GCSU. “And everybody seemed to have a really good time.”
