If you were to ask a New Yorker to picture what South Dakota was like, they would probably tell you we are just a bunch of inbred, butter churning, country music-loving hicks. They are completely wrong. We would much rather drive our buffalo to school than churn butter, thank you very much. Jokes aside, South Dakota is evolving. Well, to be technical only Sioux Falls and Vermillion are (sorry Brookings, I do not really want to go to college and study dairy.)

One major key to South Dakota’s evolutionary success is the variety in the music scene. We are finally able to get more music acts than country bands. I am sorry, but I am really tired of Flordia Georgia Line playing at the PREMIER Center. I do not have a big green tractor nor do I have feelings for my cousin, please keep the trend going and send some good music here. Two recent concerts have shown that we are progressing into a different music scene.

On Feb. 4, 2017, Twenty One Pilots played at the PREMIER Center. TOP became a radio wonder in 2016 with hits from their album “Blurryface”. “Stressed out”, “Ride” and “Heathens” topped charts all summer long and more fans became a part of the few, the proud and the emotional. When they announced they were playing in Sioux Falls for the second time, the first time was at the District in Oct. of 2015, tickets sold fast. General admission sold out in less than an hour and all of the other seats went fast after them. When the concert came, fans waited in tents for two or more days where the weather did not hit above 20 degrees.

On Feb. 11, T-Pain played at the DakotaDome in Vermillion. T-Pain is most famous for hits he released in 2005 such as “Buy U a Drank”, “Up Down” and “Bartender”. Although there was not as much hype for T-Pain as there was for TOP, a lot of students at USD attended as well as students from other schools and from LHS.

Unfortunately, there are not too many exciting concerts coming near us for awhile. Grouplove was supposed to be playing at the district on Mar. 29, but they were forced to cancel tour dates due to their singer getting sick. Unless you are excited to see Florida Georgia Line play again on Apr. 20, you are going to have to wait to see what bands come here next.