By Trent Blackham
The McKay Events Center is recovering after local rock group, The Used, riled up a crowd of 5,500 Saturday evening.
The performance brought an enormous and energetic crowd that caught the staff by surprise.
'We were counting on three ...we had a big walk up,' said Mark Hildebrandt, director of the McKay Events Center.
The crowd reacted with excitement to the band''s performance. Often the crowd became violent.
'The crowd ended up removing seating that was strapped to the floor,' said Derek Hall, director of college relations at UVSC. 'And that''s a problem when you have 20 chairs put together.'
In dealing with the crowd, UVSC police made two arrests, one for a young man eluding the police and a second for illegal consumption.
UVSC called Orem police for assistance in dealing with the rough crowd at the concert.
Two individuals were transported to the hospital throughout the evening. Hall said one had been stepped on, and Hall had no more information regarding the second.
The type of crowd that The Used brought to the show challenged Hildebrandt and the staff.
'It was the type of people that showed up,' Hildebrandt said. 'This type of music, people like to stay active. For security reasons you want to protect the people that are there.'
Andrew Law, 18, from Provo attended the concert, noticed that the crowd was a little too excited.
'Actually a guy after the final opening band said that we''d have to settle down a bit,' Law said.
However, the excitement of the crowd may have reflected the level of the band''s performance.
'If you can handle a crowd like they do, you''re gonna go big,' Law said.
Many rock musicians try to get the crowd involved to make the concert more exciting.
'Many times he was just trying to get the crowd involved,' said Andrew Kerlin, a BYU student from Springville, majoring in mechanical engineering. 'That is what entertainers do.'
Though the crowd was difficult to handle, overall the concert was a success.
'There are a lot of people who like their music, and I don''t think they disappointed anybody,' Hildebrandt said.
Since The Used is from Orem, the concert is proving what people around here are listening to.
'We can''t have Donny Osmond perform all the time here,' Hildebrandt said. 'You can see by the number of fans that showed that this is what they like.'
Hildebrandt hopes concerts such as The Used will encourage new types of music locally, so they can provide a variety of performances for listeners.
'We''d like to bring all different types of music... and just bring variety in, and see what works and provide different experiences for everybody,' Hildebrandt said.