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Last spring, the Campus Events Commission was riding high. Fresh off the success of spring shows by artists such as The Roots, The Walkmen and Xiu Xiu, the commission booked a plethora of shows for this past fall, continuing to satisfy the student demand for live music.

Now, one year later, Campus Events is closing the year in a different fashion. Problems with budget constraints, artist scheduling and booking prevented the commission from closing the year with the flourish it did 12 months ago, but in spite of these difficulties, Campus Events was still able to deliver a compelling year of live performances.

“There weren’t a lot (of concerts) spring quarter, but in the last two last quarters we had 10 concerts in 10 weeks and the (quarter) before that, six,” said outgoing Concerts Director Daniel Lopez. “NYU has their concert series – they have about four or five concerts a year, and they also charge $7. You have to appreciate that you are getting all these free concerts.”

Campus Events kicked off the year with the annual Bruin Bash, which encountered far fewer problems than the previous year’s incarnation. Pennywise was scheduled to headline Bruin Bash in September 2004, but its booking fell through at the last minute and the band was replaced by Wild Child, a The Doors tribute band, to the disappointment of many. This year, however, Campus Events was able to secure rapper Common and rock group Thrice.

“Although I didn’t get to see the show much, I’ve gotten to the point where the enjoyment comes from seeing others have fun and enjoy themselves,” said outgoing Campus Events Commissioner Jason Kaminsky, who produced Bruin Bash.

However, also unlike last year, this spring quarter did not close out with a large end-of-the-year concert. In 2005, Campus Events and the Cultural Affairs Commission teamed up to bring The Roots to a crowded Bruin Plaza. Instead, this year ended with a series of smaller concerts by lesser-known artists such as Aceyalone, Moving Units and Phantom Planet.

The commission tried to compensate for the lack of a big year-end show through programs such as the Spencer Tracy Award show, which honored actor Morgan Freeman, and the Jack Benny Award show, which brought director Kevin Smith to UCLA.

Part of the reason for the smaller programs were budget constraints. Campus Events gets a set amount of funds for all the films, concerts and speakers it brings to campus. However, this year the allocation of funds was not what the commission was accustomed to dealing with.

“We didn’t have the sort of funds that we had when we had The Roots,” Lopez said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have that huge show.”

Finding cheap bands that also provide quality entertainment is one of the hardest jobs for Campus Events employees. Each staffer acts as an agent who tries to book acts within a limited budget.

“A lot of small bands that we had this year seem to be blowing up – Architecture in Helsinki, Diplo and Moving Units,” Lopez said.

Another band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, failed to perform its fall show because of a miscommunication regarding musical gear. The band was, however, indicative of the types of indie-centric acts that have historically performed in Campus Events concerts.

Although there were a few groups from other genres, most of the acts booked this year were of the indie rock persuasion. There were some sought-after acts that fell through, due to costs or the artist not being available in the L.A. area at the time. Among the acts the commission tried in vain to book this year were Death Cab For Cutie (for Bruin Bash) and Gnarls Barkley, which wanted more money than Campus Events could offer.

In spite of these budgetary issues, Campus Events hopes to continue offering intriguing programming options to UCLA students.

“This year we had a lot of smaller events, more up-and-coming acts, more indie crap,” said Eric Chao, incoming Concerts Director. “Next year, I want to try to bring a different mix – more bigger name acts. It’s the nature of working with a college budget – trying to find a balance between more expensive, better-known bands and (less) generally known bands.”

Although they are only in the preliminary stages and nothing is confirmed, Chao and next year’s staff are in contact with Death Cab For Cutie and The Strokes to see if they will play at next year’s Bruin Bash.

Despite its problems, both Lopez and Kaminsky were content with this year’s programming.

“I thought we had a very successful fall and winter quarter. At the end of this year, we were able to get three major bands,” Kaminsky said. “I’m pretty pleased with that.”