ARE YOU READY?

by Erin Gerken

Chances are you’ve heard of a song called “Love Like Woe”, a song that received a large amount of airplay after it was released in 2010. The music video for the song has almost 19,000,000 hits on YouTube and over 6,000,000 plays on MySpace.

That song is the most popular single by The Ready Set, who will be playing here at Simpson College on Saturday, Nov. 17. The show, put on by Campus Activities Board (CAB), will be the first show held in the new Principal Black Box Theatre in the Kent Campus Center.

Undoubtedly, many of you probably want to know more about this artist, and why should you pay a whopping $3 to go see him. So, here is a little information about them, well, him.

The Ready Set is actually one person, similar to how bands like Owl City and Secondhand Serenade are only one person. His name is Jordan Witzigreuter, he is from Fort Wayne, Ind., and he is 21-years-old. He is signed to Pete Wentz’s label, Decaydance Records, on which he has released his CD “I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming” in 2010, his EP “Feel Good Now” in 2011 and the single “Give Me Your Hand (Best Song Ever)” in 2012. The single “Love Like Woe” can be found on “I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming.” He released a second single, “Young Forever” in 2011, but it is not featured on “Feel Good Now.” He has had songs featured on the Glamour Kills Winter Sampler, he released a cover of “Airplanes” by B.o.B. and Hayley Williams of Paramore for Punk Goes Pop Volume 3 and a cover of Wiz Khalifa’s “Roll Up” with Mod Sun on Punk Goes Pop Volume 4.

He has toured in the past with bands such as All Time Low and We Are the In Crowd, he was featured on Warped Tour more than once and was the headliner for The Glamour Kills Tour in 2010. He even played at Veishea at Iowa State in 2011, the same night as Neon Trees. He is currently on tour with The All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls and Parachute, which has a stop at the University of Northern Iowa in October. He has over 1,000,000 likes on Facebook and over 180,000 followers on Twitter.

There are a few things that make The Ready Set a unique act in terms of a concert. One is that his songs sound completely different when performed live than on the studio recordings. He travels with a live band, and they adopt a rock and alternative sound rather than the pop dance music found on the albums. It shows that he has real talent when it comes to music and performing, which can be hard to find in this era of music. Another thing that is unique about him is that he loves to meet his fans. As often as he can, and as his management will let him, he will come out after a show to meet as many people as possible, take pictures with him if they would like, and sign autographs. He also chats with fans when he meets them, even though he has a very quiet and shy personality.

Tickets for Simpson students can be purchased for only $3, with tickets for non-Simpson-students selling for $17.50, both available on simpcotix.com.