From left to right, lead guitarist John Lefler and lead singer Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional rock out together on Friday, May 1st, in front of the RAC.

Dashboard Confessional played on the campus of Georgia Southern University on Friday, May 1st 2009.

The Florida based band made its stop at the band shell right outside of the Recreational Activities Center on the GSU campus in Statesboro at 8 p.m. as the final event of the campus tour.

Dashboard tour dates were set for campuses all across the nation from California to Georgia and some shows required a ticket admission; while in Statesboro admissions were free.

“We were able to get the students free admission because of student fees,” said Jonathan Martinez, GSU senior and Eagle Entertainment student worker. “If they were to play at the stadium, we would have charged. But because they wanted the show to look huge, they decided to play the band shell and give the free admissions option.”

The Dashboard Confessional show will be the last major event of the semester for Spring 2009.

“We wanted to give our students and the community a fun way to end the school year and start their summer,” said Sriravong Sriratanakoul, Student Activities Coordinator. “This free show is a terrific way for students to have a great time with friends as they wrap up classes and exams. For our graduating seniors, this will be one more great memory of Georgia Southern they can take with them.”

People from all over southeast Georgia traveled to Statesboro so that they can see the show.

“It took me an hour to get here and I left right after I got off of work at 8 p.m.,” said Dalila Cruz, 24-year-old senior at Savannah Technical College. “I would not have missed it for the world.”

Chris Carrabba in Dashboard Confessional


Shows based at Universities for this small tour around the country may be a reason for the success of the band being pushed to mainstream level by the student fans and other young people.

“I have always loved Dashboard,” said Mary Ramirez, 23-year-old English Major at GSU. “They’ve been around since I was in high school and I’m really excited to see that they are playing during my last semester’s here at Georgia Southern.”

Dashboard Confessional, who has been around since the early 2000s, began to cultivate an increasing fan base from Florida listeners.

Chris Carrabba serenades the large crowd at GSU.

The roots of the band began with Chris Carrabba, from Boca Raton, Florida since the age of 16, who started to get musically involved with bands such as Vacant Andy’s, The Agency, then lead to a band more prominent in underground music, Further Seems Forever.

After playing in these bands for several years, Carrabba wanted to pursue a solo-side project, which ultimately led to the creation of Dashboard Confessional.

The band, which derived its name from a song lyric from Further Seems Forever, took off with Carrabba’s first EP The Drowning, released in 2001.

Eight years and 6 albums later, Dashboard Confessional has an increasing nation-wide fan base. The band members include bassist Scott Schoenbeck, John Lefler guitarist, and Mike Marsh on drums.

Shari Blackburn