The Physical Activities Center floor flooded with cowboy boots on Saturday night as University of Southern Indiana’s SpringFest country performance began.

Crowds gathered near the stage, waiting for the night’s entertainment and introductory band, Mike Golden and Friends, opening for their first country performance.

”It was a different show for me. I’m not used to playing for country acts,” said Mike Golden, lead singer.

The band had a sound very different from the rest of the night’s acts, reminding me slightly of another band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

“I like their sound,” said Megan Birge, freshman social science secondary education major.

Golden said he and the band have played at Eastern Illinois University and at Purdue University. However USI was their first gymnasium concert.

“It’s a lot more fun,” Golden said.

Mike Golden and Friends have been performing for about a 1 1/2 years, according to Golden.

Emerson Drive opened for the headline act, Chris Cagle.  My personal favorite of the evening, I think Emerson Drive should have been the headliner performance.  The band had a lot of energy and sang for their entire block of time. Cagle, however, did not.

On multiple occasions Cagle spoke directly to observers, even poked fun at and joked with crowd members.

If I pay to see someone perform, I want to hear him or her sing, not listen to them talk all night about how they got started in the business.

If I wanted to know about that, I would have used the money to go and buy the book about the person’s life.

Cagle did, however, acknowledge those fighting for our country and recognize members of the student body who had been overseas, or were going.

Birge said the concert, as a whole, had “amazing energy” and Shelby Bruick, freshman, said her favorite act was Chris Cagle, as did Birge.

As a whole, the concert was energizing and the crowd responded to the performances and sang along with the music.

Country music night continues to be a popular SpringFest event here at USI.