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Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Oktoberfest Band Review: a decent mission accomplished

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Last Bison performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

In what is now becoming a familiar trend, Longwood’s annual Oktoberfest concerts had devastating weather, unkind to the festival-like approach of event. Last year, we saw heavy rain force the event inside Willett Hall in which headliner Post Malone would show up late to only perform for 30 minutes.

Perhaps this year didn’t face that sort of opposition from mother nature, but the cold front that swept across the east coast after an unusually warm week seemed to hinder crowd attendance and participation.

After smaller acts such as Dale and the ZDubs, Raelynn and Major and the Monbacks performed to decent reception, of which Raelynn seemed to have the most crowd support; the three larger acts of the day were up against a day that kept getting colder.

2003 was a fantastic year for urban hit songs. “In the Club” by 50 Cent, “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé, “Hey Ya” by Outkast and the oft-forgotten smash “Right Thurr” by St. Louis rapper Chingy. The hit song would buy Chingy’s introduction to an increasingly mainstream hip-hop culture in which he would produce a couple more hits before ultimately falling out of relevancy.

Instead of coming out with heats, Chingy came out to multiple cuts across the year that were lively if only because of live production. Seriously, his sound system had to reverberate across our little ‘ol Farmville. His sound engineer definitely made his worth as the primarily trap-infused beats carried the set.

Chingy did a solid job of keeping a primarily younger generation then when he was relevant, interested. Rapping over Metro Boomin beats certainly helped that cause, but his hit songs show how popular he was at one time. “Holidae Inn” drew a huge response along with “One Call Away,” the R&B crossover track that solidified at least three hits; a far cry from a one-hit wonder. Of course, “Right Thurr” drew the biggest response accordingly as concert-goers filed out immediately.

Unfortunately for the next performer, The Last Bison, the crowd seemed significantly diminished for their set. Perhaps it was because Chingy was the most noteworthy act that performed mixed in with a disdain for cold weather that couldn’t be sustained for two straight sets, but Bison’s set was largely abandoned.

The music was good. Though, there seemed to be nothing notable an average music listener would know of. But The Last Bison maintained good musicianship and professionalism for having maybe 20 fans in attendance. After their set, a 30-minute wait stood in between a headlining set by The Maine.

The alternative rock band recouped the majority of concert-goers from the Chingy set, having the second biggest attendance of the day. The talented band went through cuts from recent album “American Candy” and past albums such as “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.” The front-man, John O’Callaghan connected with the audience, inciting laughter and encouraging mayhem.

Overall, it wasn’t the most inspiring Oktoberfest band series. The weather wasn’t the most complimentary for an outside performance. Also, Chingy should’ve been the headliner as he was simply the most notable act of the night. Save for that, the other performers were pretty good to decent, so mission accomplished on that front.

Last Bison performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

Last Bison performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

Raelynn performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

Raelynn performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

The Maine performing at Oktoberfest 2016.

The Maine performing at Oktoberfest 2016.