Tickets go on sale today for University Union Concerts’s newly announced concert, the Beats for Peace concert to be held April 12, featuring The Roots.

UU has been courting The Roots, its first choice, since it received its budget for the show, said UU Concerts co-chair Adam Gorode.

‘They had a lot of colleges interested in them for this time, so we had to do some persuading to get them to come here,’ he said.

This is UU’s second attempt to snag the jazz-influenced live hip-hop group. UU wanted to bring them for October’s Juice Jam, Gorode said.

Common, a neo-soul hip hop artist, will open for The Roots. He has worked with The Roots both live and on their album, including their latest, ‘Things Fall Apart.’

‘I think he’s one of the best rappers out there,’ Gorode said.

The concert will be held April 12 in Goldstein Auditorium. Tickets will cost $12 for students, slightly more than the usual UU ticket price.

All the money left over after UU pays for the concert will be donated to the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based center that works to spread peace and advance human rights throughout the world.

Beats for Peace is the first large charity concert UU has hosted in the last few years, Gorode said.

‘There’s no reason why people can’t come out to a show and be educated, or why we can’t benefit someone else,’ Gorode said. ‘There are only so many events that can get so many people together,’ Gorode said.

UU is putting 1,500 tickets on sale for the Beats for Peace concert. UU is still figuring out its expenses for the concert, and won’t know exactly how much money from each ticket sale will go to the Carter Center until totals its expenditures, Gorode said.

The announcement of another large concert like Ben Folds’ January performance comes as a welcome treat for student music fans.

‘I’ve been waiting,’ said Kyle Fitzgerald, a freshman television, radio and film major. ‘I’ve always wondered why Syracuse hasn’t attracted more musical acts.’

While UU looked into getting other acts for the spring concerts, including Kanye West, Incubus and Green Day, many were not available for April 12. Many of the artists UU was considering for this concert are still being looked into for May’s Block Party.

Larger acts, like Incubus and Jon Stewart, are an area where UU is struggling, said Scott Winer, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences.

‘It’s great that they’re at least trying,’ he said.

‘We got the money and we did our absolute best to get it done, but sometimes things just don’t work out,’ Gorode said. UU has wanted The Roots for a long time, Gorode said, and are certainly not a second-choice band.

The slightly higher ticket price most likely won’t take away from the number of students willing to go, Fitzgerald said.

‘There are more than enough people willing to go to a Roots concert,’ he said.

Published on March 29, 2005 at 12:00 pm