Wu-Tang, Gavin Rock the Yard

Under the spire of Memorial Church, in front of three “Veritas”-emblazoned banners, the Wu-Tang Clan laid down a different kind of truth for the undergraduates of Harvard College on Friday.

The nine-member hip-hop group was followed by pop-rock artist Gavin DeGraw, in the College’s third annual Yardfest.

This year’s concert—which took place on a warm, sunny afternoon—was significantly better-attended than last year’s, which featured Third Eye Blind in the rain. The College Events Board (CEB) estimated that 7,000 people were present for Wu-Tang and about 5,000 stayed for Gavin DeGraw. They said 1,500 to 2,000 people attended last year’s show.

“Beyond the weather factor, which is obviously huge, I think students were pumped about Yardfest, everybody was taking about it,” said CEB chair John F. Pararas ’08-’09. “The artist selection made people get excited that it was something different.”

Despite evident enthusiasm during Wu-Tang’s set on the part of students— many of whom waved their arms in the air with hands in a “W” or tried crowd-surfing—actual knowledge of many of the group’s lyrics was somewhat lacking.

When one member of Wu-Tang held his microphone out over the crowd to have them follow the lyrics, there was little response.

“You’re not as smart as you thought you are,” he remarked.

The group was missing three of its most notorious members from its original incarnation: RZA, Method Man, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The remaining group members asked the audience to hold up peace signs for Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004, and “do a joint” for Method Man, who was away filming a movie.

To get the audience excited, a couple of the rappers descended the church steps and went into the first few rows of the crowd. Participation increased during the group’s popular songs, “C.R.E.A.M.” (which stands for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me”), and “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit.”

“It was sort of weird. I couldn’t get over the dissonance between Wu-Tang and Harvard,” Charles J. Swanson ’08 said.

As the sun set over the Yard, a DeGraw took the stage—but not the one the audience was expecting. Joey DeGraw, Gavin’s older brother, played a short set of music prior to the appearance of the more familiar DeGraw, who didn’t perform until past 8.

The crowd remaining for the DeGraws was more subdued than earlier in the evening, waving cell phones in the air in lieu of lighters and singing along to familiar songs. On occasion, there were shouts of “Wu-Tang” during his show.

“It was a little bit weird for me to watch you all go gangsta before,” Gavin DeGraw said between songs. “Ivy League gangstas.”

The audience did respond with excitement to DeGraw’s closing number, “I Don’t Wanna Be,” and his encore, “Chariot.”

“This Yardfest was better than the other ones,” said Austin D. McLeod ’09, who met DeGraw as he walked around the Yard before he took the stage. “He seemed really down to earth and asked us how we like Harvard.”

After his performance, DeGraw held an autograph-signing session at the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub.

“I thought the greatest thing was just to see the whole Harvard community come together—too often we lose sight of the fact that we go to this larger College,” said Pararas, who is also a Crimson magazine editor. “Walking through the crowd, everybody was there next to everybody else—it was just Harvard having fun together.”

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Arianna Markel can be reached at amarkel@fas.harvard.edu.