At Drexel, the art of the deal

With a guaranteed paycheck and a captive audience, college shows are a great deal for up-and-coming bands.

But the acts on the stage of Drexel's Mandell Theatre Friday night gained something more valuable than free beer from their brush with higher education: a recording contract.

The briskly paced, four-hour concert showcased artists signed to student-run MAD Dragon Records, which has been a linchpin of Drexel's entertainment industry program for the last several years. While their roster mainly includes local artists, the evening's six acts encompassed a wide range of styles, from bluegrass to Britpop.

MAD Dragon's biggest coup may have been signing the Redwalls, a Chicago quartet with several years' worth of major-label promotion behind them. Recorded with Franz Ferdinand producer Tore Johansson (whose services were retained courtesy of their former label), the Redwalls' self-titled CD, released in October, offers a radio-ready mix of crunchy guitars and sweet harmonies, although there's not much beyond their go-go boots to distinguish them from legions of would-be Strokes.

As openers, the Takeover UK mined a similarly Anglophilic vein of revved-up, '60s-inflected pop (despite the name, they hail from Pittsburgh), although they sported jeans and flannel shirts rather than Swinging London chic. Andrew Lipke and Matt Duke approached the singer-songwriter niche from opposite ends. With his boudoir-themed lyrics and a soaring falsetto reminiscent of Rufus Wainwright, Lipke was the lovesick heartthrob. After his set ended, one stricken woman rushed the stage for an autograph, and returned to her seat giggling and flushed.

Duke attacked his guitar angrily, castigating escapists who "turn off the lights." Although he spent half the set with his cardigan dangling from his guitar strap, his propulsive mix of introspective folk and aggressive pop-punk struck a note with the crowd (at least when they weren't heckling the between-song pauses).

The Swimmers, whose long-awaited debut comes out in March, took things up a notch with their muscular, synth-distorted pop, and quartet Hoots and Hellmouth stepped off the stage for an unamplified set of down-home mountain music.

Despite the variety of sounds, there was one constant to the night, as band after band announced the release of its forthcoming album. Who needs a six-pack when you've got a record deal?