Despite Oxford’s classification as a small town, it has a reputation for attracting renowned musical artists and bands. The music scene has been active and lively for years thanks in part to the plethora of notable venues on campus and around town, like the recently demolished C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum, Fulton Chapel, Proud Larry’s and even the parking lot behind the Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union.
Oxford’s prolific music scene may be attributed to the young, vibrant student population and the town’s convenient location near major music hubs. Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta and New Orleans make the area a hotspot for musicians touring through the South.
The list of great acts that have performed in Oxford is expansive and ongoing, making it impossible to narrow down Oxford’s “most iconic” shows. Here are just a few big shows and concerts that struck a chord with students and locals throughout the decades.
R.E.M.
Prior to R.E.M.’s induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and three Grammy wins, the band played on the Ole Miss campus twice. University of Georgia students formed the band in Athens, Ga., in 1980 before dropping out to pursue music professionally.
In the Oct. 8, 1984 edition of The Daily Mississippian, the band expressed enthusiasm for its Little America Tour stop at Fulton Chapel on Oct. 3.
“Audiences (in small towns) are more fun,” guitarist Peter Buck said. “They’re starved for entertainment — or they’re less trendy.”
Bassist Mike Mills agreed that students crave live music.
“Colleges have a built-in audience waiting to have fun,” Mills said. “They’ve paid their $12 to get in, and they want to get their money’s worth.”
R.E.M came back to campus during its 1987 Work Tour on Nov. 14. This time, the band’s increased popularity meant a larger setup in the Tad Pad. Following the concert, The Daily Mississippian’s front page left a good review of the concert, with the headline reading, “R.E.M. rocks UM coliseum.”
Recording engineer and musician Clay Jones moved to Oxford from Jackson, Miss., in 1991 to study English at the university. While in high school, he traveled to Oxford to see the 1987 concert.
Jones described R.E.M.’s influence and popularity at the time.
“There’s no way to explain how important R.E.M. was to my generation,” Jones said. “It was like they were the one thing from the South that gave anybody hope that you could be in a band or have success. They were kind of our heroes.”
For Proud Larry’s owner Scott Caradine, R.E.M. put on an exceptional concert. Originally from Lafayette, La., Caradine moved to Oxford in 1987 to attend the university as a hospitality management major before opening his own local venue in 1993.
“I saw concerts in high school, but this was a different experience,” Caradine said. “It was the first concert I saw in the Tad Smith Coliseum. I remember having seats halfway back on the floor and knowing all the words to the songs.”
Oxford local Chico Harris began attending the university as a journalism major in 1985, but he started going to shows around town much earlier. Harris attended both R.E.M. concerts and described the evolution of the band’s performances.
“In those short years, they became much more professional,” Harris said. “In the Tad Pad, they seemed more like a big rock ‘n’ roll band, and in Fulton Chapel, they still seemed like a band you might see at a bar.”
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan performed at the Tad Pad during his 1990 Never Ending Tour on Oct. 25. His concert was highly anticipated by students and locals due to his status as a folk legend.
In an article by the DM leading up to the concert, graduate student Michael Reese voiced excitement for the front-row tickets, for which he waited in line all night.
“It’s Dylan; it’s not often you have an opportunity to do something like this. … Just to see Dylan is going to be wonderful,” Reese said.
Despite the anticipation, Dylan’s performance was not his best. Caradine commented on the poor sound quality in the venue.
“The sound in there was terrible. (Dylan) was one of those hit-or-miss artists that either put on a great show or didn’t,” Caradine said.
Jones echoed the sentiment.
“He does this thing live where he’ll just obsessively rearrange songs,” Jones said. “I can just remember sitting there having to strain to pick out a lyric to know what song he was singing. There was never a recognizable melody or anything like any song you knew. But he’s been doing this forever. That was just a particularly bad case of it.”
Regardless of this particular lackluster performance, Dylan’s campus concert was a historic moment. It was the first and only time Dylan performed his 1963 song “Oxford Town,” which was based on James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss in 1962 as part of integration and the riots that ensued.
Phish
“Who the heck are Phish?” Daily Mississippian opinion columnist Nik Dirga asked prior to Phish’s concert in the parking lot between Stewart Hall, Brown Hall and Hefley Hall in 1994. While still a relevant question, the show’s unique circumstances and hilarious coverage makes this a necessary addition to the list.
The abnormal concert on Oct. 13 involved blocking off what was called the Women’s Terrace, now the parking lot behind the Student Union, and caused an uproar for those living in the dorms with residential parking passes.
“If it was a cool band, it’d be OK to inconvenience all of us, but since it is Phish, it is really a hassle,” student Diane Covar said.
“The (Student Programming Board) should, in the future, consider the full effects of their actions upon the campus as a whole,” Dirga wrote. “And maybe next time they can get a band that doesn’t suck as well.”
The Vermont jam band isn’t popular for mainstream hits, but for its impressive live performances and cult-like following known as “Phans” and “Phish-heads.”
In spite of students’ critiques, The Daily Mississippian’s review of the concert read, “Columnist gives Phish concert passing marks.” The review also highlighted the unique style of Phish-heads.
“In the same fashion as faithful tagalongs of the Grateful Dead, Phish-heads, those devoted phollowers of Phish, accounted for much of the pre concert entertainment,” staff writer Jamie Kornegay wrote. “They paraded around in ‘60s attire, got tanked up on an array of pharmaceutics and peddled various hippie trinkets.”
Jones described inadvertently stumbling upon the show.
“I had to go to a philosophy forum in the Union, so when I walked out it was literally right there in the parking lot,” Jones said. “I didn’t have a ticket or anything, so I just watched it from outside the fence.”
This was the second (and last) time Phish performed in Oxford, the first being in 1991 at The Gin, a popular nighttime bar and venue. Phish’s 1994 show in the parking lot on campus remains a legendary Oxford show for its atypical execution and eccentric crowd.
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins’ visit to Oxford during the band’s 1994 Siamese Dream tour received bad reviews, to put it lightly.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ first Mississippi performance was on April 6, 1994 at the Tad Pad. Two days later, The Daily Mississippian’s front page entertainment headline read, “Smashing Pumpkins deserves to be smashed.” The scathing review claimed that “the band was rude, crude and socially unacceptable according to some staff members.”
Reports of the concert outlined multiple problems during the show — most notably, lead singer Billy Corgan’s attitude towards the crowd.
“Billy Corgan’s, the lead vocalist, attitude sucked,” entertainment staffers Shannon Foster and Sean Thompson wrote in their review. “It especially ticked me and several other members student (sic.) off that Corgan thanked members of the audience that had come to the concert because of their ‘one’ song on MTV.”
Jones was similarly disappointed in the band’s performance.
“I had seen them play in Memphis months before that, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. The sound was great. Everything was great. They were perfect,” Jones said. “And then at the Oxford show, they came out came out and just immediately had this ‘we-don’t-want-to-be-here’ vibe.’”
The Smashing Pumpkins had a rude demeanor, did not thank the crowd at the end of the show and ended their concert after 50 minutes, making this show a funny addition to Oxford’s music lore.
Modest Mouse at Proud Larry’s and the Lyric
Modest Mouse has an expansive history in Oxford, including two performances in 2001 and 2009, respectively. The band famously recorded parts of its 2004 Grammy-nominated album “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” at Sweet Tea Recording Studio in Oxford.
Jones worked as a sound engineer on four of the band’s albums, beginning with the 2004 album. He expressed regret for missing Modest Mouse’s first show at Proud Larry’s in 2001.
“I really wish I had seen that first three-piece show because that was a great time to see them,” Jones said. “I hate that I didn’t see that, because I saw tons of Modest Mouse shows around 2006 when they were a much bigger band.”
Caradine recalled the atmosphere of the packed show.
“That was one of the first shows where we had an employee that worked here that said, ‘Hey, what about this band Modest Mouse? You need to put Modest Mouse on,’” Caradine said. “They seemed to have a good time here, and I remember watching that show from pretty close to the stage.”
Modest Mouse returned to Oxford in 2009 and played in The Lyric Oxford a year after it was restored as a venue. Tickets for the show sold out the same day they were released.
The recording history and well-received performances makes Modest Mouse an integral member of Oxford’s iconic performers.
Oxford’s reputation for its music acts transcends the generational divide. Oxford native Amelia Thomas, a sophomore art history major, heard about The Smashing Pumpkins and Modest Mouse concerts growing up. She commented on the enduring legacy of Oxford’s music scene.
“I think Oxford draws in so many music acts largely because it is a college town,” Thomas said. “To me, Oxford is the coolest place with the coolest people in Mississippi, and I think that if I were going to pick somewhere to play, it would definitely be here.”
