When the Last Day of Classes schedule was announced, some students complained that the Indigo Girls do not appeal to them-or to a large segment of the student body. But Indigo Girl Emily Saliers has an appeal of her own: "Just open your hearts up."
Intrigued by the campus reaction to the announcement, Saliers points out: "Our whole message is about celebrating diversity and respect among people and creatures, and also having a good time."
Saliers believes her band should not be reduced to just one aspect.
"To me, we're a lot of different things, and a lot of the music just has to do with exploring issues of life. There are a lot of songs that are sing-along songs and feel-good songs," she says, adding that the music usually resonates with any audience.
At the same time, she concedes that the Indigo Girls can easily be pigeonholed.
"We're aligned with a certain set of politics that may attract a certain audience," says Saliers, who, along with fellow band member Amy Ray, is known for her liberal activism.
For example, the Indigo Girls' 1994 hit "Least Complicated" addresses the two women's recognition of their homosexuality.
But Saliers adds that their audience goes beyond what some may suspect.
"We have a large gay following, for obvious reasons, [but] they don't make up the largest percentage of our fans," she says. "We have more women fans than men fans, and we have a large college following and a growing high school following."
Regardless of who is in the audience, Saliers says the band enjoys playing live.
"Our experience with the crowd has just been a joyful experience," she says. "I can't imagine really alienating anybody unless they are turned off by the politics of some of our songs."
As an example of their activism, the Indigo Girls announced recently that they had canceled next week's scheduled performance in Myrtle Beach. The show was canceled "in solidarity with the NAACP and the tourism boycott of South Carolina in an effort to remove the Confederate flag symbolism from the S.C. capitol," according to the band's web site.
Saliers speculates that other politically influenced bands, such as U2 or Rage Against the Machine, might not have gotten the same mixed reaction from students.
"I think there's a lot of prejudice against women who are hotly political and active and especially lesbian."
Laughing, she adds, "[Maybe] certain people just have an aversion to folk music, especially women with guitars."
The Indigo Girls will be performing in Page Auditorium tonight as an acoustic duo; they will not be accompanied by the band they brought on their most recent tour, which visited the Triangle last fall.
Tonight, about half of the Indigo Girls' set will be from their new album Come On Now Social, while the other half will include classics such as "Closer To Fine" and "Shame On You."
The opening acts will be Michelle Malone, an acclaimed Atlanta singer/songwriter who Saliers praises for her "beautiful voice," and alternative rock band Agents of Good Roots.
Saliers says that she and Ray are looking forward to playing on campus. "College venues are practically the most fun to play because it's youthful and unabated," she says. "It's just a nice environment. For people who are active, that's the kind of stuff that we get inspired by."
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