November 12, 2004
Free Tommy Lee concert falls flat as attendees flee early
A free thank-you concert, courtesy of Tommy Lee’s TV entourage, turned out to be less about music and more about TV.
Crowds waited impatiently outside the Rococo Theatre for more than an hour, comparing Tommy stories of retakes and staged antics.
“Right now I’m asking myself why I’m standing in line this long to see Tommy Lee,” said freshman art major Eric Chloupek.
Outside the door, a sign stated that entering the theater granted filmmakers the right to use students’ images “throughout the world in perpetuity.”
“Make this unbelievable for TV,” Lee said when he took the stage. “Trust me when I say this, the whole world is watching.”
Holding a microphone before a bullhorn he said, “Let’s show these people all around the world what’s going on in Nebraska. Don’t let me down. They’re all watching.”
Thanking Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who stood on a balcony above the stage, Lee professed he was having an emotional moment. Then he thanked the audience, his roommate, his band, and once again asked, “Can we make this amazing for TV?”
The crowd cheered before the stage, on which Lee, recording artist B.T. and another disc jockey stood. Playing a cover of Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right,” the University of Nebraska-Lincoln drumline entered the stage, and the horns of the marching band entered the audience.
The chancellor smiled and tapped the banister to the music.
The crowd by the stage held their arms up in the pulsing lights. Four dancers writhed on stage.
A camera pivoted over the stage and men holding lights walked across, following other men holding cameras.
Lee played drums, danced on the stage, took his shirt off and talked to the crowd.
At the end of the song the drumline threw their sticks into the audience.
Then the drumline asked for them back, because producers wanted to film another take.
So the sticks were thrown back and cameras resumed again, with the marching band entering stage left and right, sweating now.
A few minutes later, for the third time, the sticks were thrown back.
Though B.T. and Lee asked for the sticks back once more, many audience members refused.
Conrad Castaneda, a senior history major, compared it to a pep rally and left.
“Man, this is lame,” Castaneda said. “No rock ’n’ roll. I thought I was gonna come see Tommy Lee play with a band.”
By then, many in the estimated audience of 650 had emptied out of the theater. One of the producers said another 40 minutes of music was planned.
“We’re just gonna do some mixes, have some fun, let loose,” he said.