Stevie Wonder slinging vinyl records like frisbees into a crowd. Nirvana giving an in-studio, marijuana-addled interview on BC’s radio show on the same day their seminal album “Nevermind” hit shelves. A certain bitter BC team locking the B-52s out of the locker room in Conte Forum that the band had claimed as their green room. Vanilla Ice getting in a shouting match with the audio technician before crashing through the stage at the Rat mid-concert. Chris Rock saving his stand-up set from bombing by ditching his clean jokes, much to the chagrin of University leadership. A cancelled 1970 festival in Alumni Stadium called “Eagle Rock,” featuring the likes of Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers, to name a few. Aerosmith getting the BPD Tactical Patrol Force called in to disperse the rowdy crowd of largely underage, non-BC student concert-goers.

Indeed, for a university that practically shares postal codes with Berklee, BU, and a host of other storied music programs and venues, BC boasts a surprisingly rich history of musical and comic performances. The list of live acts, though incomplete, includes jaw-dropping bookings and is accompanied by a laundry list of farcical anecdotes and apocryphal appearances.

To many Eagles these experiences comprise some of their favorite memories on campus. 

“My favorite BC memory would probably have to be some of the concerts,” said Roberto Peraza ’06. “We had Kanye [West], Dave Chappelle, John Legend before he got big. Barack Obama even spoke here before he went on to run for the presidency.”

At RECONNECT III, Duane Brown ’76 echoed a similar sentiment. “[Groups like the Black Student Forum] were spectacular at bringing talent to BC. We brought Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, the Spinners, Chicago, Three Dog Night, Doug and Jean Carn. 

“When Stevie came to BC, ‘Superstition’ was probably his biggest hit, and he did something he’d probably be sued for today—threw out a bunch of 45 [rpm] records of the single to the crowd. People just went crazy.”

While still vibrant and chock-full of outstanding performances and productions, the live music scene at BC arguably peaked in the mid-’60s to mid-’80s—when bygone buildings like the Roberts Center, McHugh Forum, and the William J. Flynn Recreation Complex (A.K.A. The Plex) hosted the Beach Boys, Ray Charles, The Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, and a slew of other legendary acts. 

What’s missed most of all, perhaps, is the heyday of the Rat. Short for “Rathskeller,” a German word for a basement beer hall in a municipal building, the traditional stomping ground on campus was where, per Rocko Graziano ’87 in The Heights, “seniors go every Thursday to drink and sweat in large quantities.” 

A telling anecdote from a 1987 edition of the Heights column “Voices of the Dustbowl” illustrates the centrality of the Rat to campus life: “What was your most memorable experience at BC from the past year?”

“Waking up after the Rat without my car on Friday morning,” replied Scott Farley ’88, JD’91. “If anyone finds it, please return it.”

Less than three years later, a Heights letter to the editor was already comparing the Rat to a morgue after a handful of legislative changes sent the dingy bar the way of the dodo. However, even after the Rat lost its place in the University’s live music and social scene, the ’90s and ’00s saw an incredible collection of up-and-coming acts, primarily R&B and Hip Hop artists, come through Conte Forum and other campus venues. 

For President of the BC Alumni Association Board of Directors Wynndell Bishop ’00, MBA’07, his time spent booking and producing Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) concerts was a foundational part of his time at the Heights. “Sophomore and junior year I ended up on UGBC’s programming committee, so we put together some of the best concerts and live events. We brought in Chris Rock, OutKast, Eminem, Run-DMC, the Fugees—big acts, and some really, really good shows.”

What’s striking about this remarkable run of concerts put on by UGBC is how many of these acts were, in hindsight, either in the midst of their meteoric rise, or at the peak of their artistic powers and career arc. 

“We had a good time. [The concerts] brought everybody together. It was a super diverse group, and my role was like the director of production,” Wynndell continued. “So whenever concerts came, it was my responsibility to work with the professional crews—getting student volunteers to set up and break down the concert. And what was really nice about that was I got to work closely with Jimmy Costa.”

Senior Associate Director of Alumni Programs and Events Jim Costa has worn just about every hat there is on campus since he began working for the University in 1988. By the mid-’90s, Jim was working in event management at BC, collaborating with 200+ student groups, especially UGBC, to put on concerts on a near-weekly basis. “The hours were long,” he said. “The logistics were often stressful. But I enjoyed it very much. When you’re working with students, their energy kind of transfers over to you.” 

“I’ve known [Jim] since about ’98,” said Wynndell. “I love him and working with him [on Alumni Association matters]. And it just goes to show the way relationships can mature and grow. [Putting on concerts with Jim] was an early introduction to how you can get things done on campus.”

“Wyndell and his group of friends were good kids. They drove me crazy,” Jim said with a laugh, “but they were really respectful.” 

The work of coordinating shows for several thousand students is more involved than one might imagine, requiring a plethora of meetings with student groups, University administrators, campus and city police, the artists’ management team, and more. Musicians’ riders, or contractual requirements related to a performance, were particularly tedious to fulfill, often including obscure foods that bands would hardly ever touch, per Costa. “But it was in the rider, so we’d have to bend over backwards to do it.”

The golden era of Hip Hop bookings arguably ended in 2006, when the University shelled out big money to bring rising (and not yet mired in controversy) star Kanye West. “Jesus Walks into Conte Forum,” The Heights headline reads, invoking West’s hit single off his debut album, The College Dropout. 

In an interview with Prescott White ’06 the following semester, the then–UGBC director of programming surmised that the Kanye show was “by far the biggest accomplishment of the past three years … we have upped the ante and proven we can manage and host large shows … and [will] hopefully continue this trend in the future.”

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, exactly. Plenty of strong performances followed, but none of the caliber of Kanye West at (perhaps) the height of his stardom. There are, of course, still plenty of great, up-and-coming acts—Aminé and Men I Trust, to name a few—that have played at BC in recent years, but none quite of the stature (yet) of the pre-2006 bookings.

There’s always last year, though. Generations of Eagles will continue reminiscing in Facebook posts about concerts of yesteryear and the laughter, chaos, and connections that accompanied them. And in the meantime, who knows how many illustrious names will be added to the list of artists who’ve visited the Heights

“I look back fondly at pulling off those crazy Conte Forum events,” Costa said. “Sitting back and laughing with colleagues, roadies, and students—that’s what I remember most.”