Last spring, Student Events rebranded and became the Campus Activities Board. Since then, CAB has booked some high-profile entertainers for this semester, and this board commends CAB members for their hard work and success in bringing these performers to campus.  

One of the big names is alternative rock band X Ambassadors, which is coming to perform on Oct. 21 for this year’s fall concert. Last year’s concert headliner was AlunaGeorge, an electronic musical duo based in London, England. While the AlunaGeorge concert was a hit among Brandeis students, the duo is not as well known as X Ambassadors. None of AlunaGeorge’s songs have made the mainstream U.S. Billboard charts, with their record album sale being just over 32,000. 

Meanwhile, the X Ambassadors’ debut album, which was released just over two years ago, reached a peak position of No. 7 in the U.S. Billboard 200 weekly charts and No.70 in Billboard’s year-end charts. X Ambassadors has also received a gold certification in the U.S., having sold around 500,000 certified albums. 

Later this month, “Saturday Night Live” writer and comedian Colin Jost will come to campus for the Fall Fest Variety Show on Oct. 27. According to the Brandeis website, Jost has been writing for SNL since 2005, which means he has been in the spotlight for about 12 years. Throughout the course of his work, Jost has won three Writers’ Guild Awards and a Peabody Award and has been nominated for several Emmy Awards. Overall, Jost has more name recognition than last year’s comedian, Myq Kaplan, whose first public performance was in 2010 on the television competition series “Last Comic Standing.” 

X Ambassadors’ and Jost’s scheduled performances on campus this semester signal improvements in efforts to bring more popular acts to the Brandeis community. This board appreciates CAB’s efforts to provide the Brandeis community with high-quality entertainment, and we encourage students to reward those efforts with a high turnout.