Old Gold and Black

Wake Forest U.

A decent-sized crowd made it to the event to hear the debates, listen to speeches by third-party candidates, register to vote and, of course, hear some live music.

Rock the Vote is a non-partisan organization that helps promote political awareness and registers voters age 18-25. The show at LJVM was the final stop of a 25-city nationwide tour and the first ever to occur in the same town with a presidential debate happening.

Shortly before the event, an announcement was made that neither Pink nor Rah Digga would appear, as had been previously announced. However, this left more time for third-party candidates to speak.

The night began with a brief speech by Libertarian candidate Harry Browne, who ran for president in 1996 with the same party. Browne's platform advocates limited government and individual liberty by reducing taxes, eliminating Social Security, decriminalizing most drugs and repealing gun laws -- among other things.

Browne said he sees young people as the group most likely to embrace the kind of institutional change that he promotes, which is why he chooses forums such as Rock the Vote to spread his word.

Young people aren't wedded to political parties in the same way that their parents are. With older people and middle-aged people there seems to be two political options -- right or wrong. Young people don't seem to have those loyalties, and they're wide open to ideas. That's why I'm so happy to be here, Browne said.

The next speaker was John Hagelin, a Harvard-trained physicist running on the ticket of the Natural Law/Independent Coalition. Hagelin said although his platform bears some resemblance to those of both the Green Party and the Reform Party, it is more broad than either party platform.

The Natural Law Party supports the most up-to-date educational innovations, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, crime prevention, resolving conflicts peacefully both at home and abroad, and I think we've put together the most comprehensive blueprint for government in the new millennium, Hagelin said.

Hagelin said that even though a third-party candidate may not be elected to the White House, involvement in these campaigns raises awareness about issues that mainstream politicians are afraid to touch. He said these types of discussions put pressure on Washington to take a stand for something new.

After Hagelin finished speaking, Daniel Cage and his band took the stage for a short set. At this point, a lot of the crowd moved to the floor, and the seats became more sparsely filled. Cage's set consisted mostly of driving pop-rock numbers, with a few ballads interspersed. The final song in the set consisted of Cage alone onstage with a small keyboard, but it was cut short when the giant screens on either side of the stage turned on for the debate.

The crowd erupted with applause when the moderator mentioned the university, but that seemed to be the only point of general consensus during the rest of the debate. Both candidates received substantial response from the crowd when taking a stance on particularly divisive issues.

The Republicans in the crowd applauded George W. Bush's endorsement of the death penalty for hate crime offenders, and Al Gore received support for his stance on health care. For the most part, the crowd seemed evenly divided, as proved by the responses to the two candidates' closing remarks.

As soon as the debate ended, Hootie & the Blowfish took the stage for an hour-long set to close the evening. The band opened up with Desert Mountain Showdown, a southern tune of its album Musical Chairs. The set moved along, including a lot of new tunes, most of the band's old hits, a Led Zeppelin cover and even a take on Wipeout.

Frontman Darius Rucker encouraged young people to vote, although he would not reveal his own preference. He also engaged in conversation with audience members, which eventually led to a discussion about college football. Guitarist Mark Bryan mentioned that his father was an alumnus at the university, and that he was a little disappointed at the team's performance this season. The banter between tunes continued throughout the set, which finally ended with Hold my Hand.

The band returned to the stage for a encore consisting of the tradition number, Will the Circle be Unbroken, and Carlos Santana's Black-Magic Woman. Although Bryan imitated Santana's guitar solo verbatim for the latter number, a good percussion solo distinguished the cover as the clear highlight of the show. To appease a crowd that came to hear the Blowfish, the band ended the show with Only Wanna be with You.

Sophomore Chris Schneider, who volunteered at Rock the Vote, said he was impressed with the amount of new voters the organization was able to attract.

An event like this is great because it gives young people a chance to come out and have a good time, but also learn about the different candidates and get registered to vote. We probably registered between 600 and 800 people tonight, and a lot of them might not have gotten out if there hadn't been entertainment, Schneider said.