Sick of Frat Parties? Creative Ways to Spend Your Weekend

Frat party. Bar. Frat Party. Bar. By midterms, the same-old routines are starting to get played out. Sick of chugging watered down beers, shoulder-to-shoulder in a too-loud, too-packed college bar? Have you gotten so good at beer pong it doesn’t even feel like a game anymore? Here are some sure-fire ways to put the sizzle back into your Saturday. Just don’t forget your cameras!

1. Check out a Concert

No, I’m not suggesting you sit on Ticketmaster for hours to pay hundreds of dollars to see Fall Out Boy. Check out a band you’ve never heard of. Scour the web for open mic nights and underground punk shows. You might end up catching the next big thing to hit MTV. If there’s a venue nearby that’s known for being a breeding ground for legendary rockers, join their mailing list. Otherwise, check out sites like Underground Hip Hop Dot Com or Open Mikes to find some decent music at a cheap price. Stuck on campus without a car? See if your school sponsors its own concert series, open mic’s or talent shows, and hit ‘em up, son.

2. Pee Your Pants (Not Literally)

Underground concerts too loud for you? Hit up a comedy club or try to catch an improv troupe in your area. Comedy shows run fairly cheap, and you can bust a gut without waking up with your ears ringing in the morning. Sites like The Improv list venues in several different cities, or you can Google “improv” and the name of your town to see if there’s anything nearby. Did you know that tons of Saturday Night Live regulars got their start at improv clubs like LA’s infamous Groundlings? Or that comic messiahs like Adam Sandler used to tour college campuses before making it big?

3. Take Center Stage

My personal life motto? You haven’t lived until you’ve Karaoke’d. Find a local dive bar that hosts karaoke, and hit it up. You don’t have to worry about being embarrassed in front of townies who are doing renditions of the Dixie Chicks and Metallica, and if you can force yourself onstage without boozing it up, you really won’t have to pay anything for a kick-ass good time. Karaoke in the states is at an all-time high, so there’s bound to be someplace nearby that will let you croon “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

4. Casino Night

Free drinks while you gamble? Two words for the poverty-stricken college student: Penny Slots.

5. Stage a Cultural Outing

Everyone wastes $10 at the cinemas these days to see 90 minutes of cliches and inevitable plot lines. Get your culture on and take in a play, a musical, a cabaret, a drag show, anything! If you live in a city that’s host to a variety of playhouses, chances are, you can get student rush tix on the cheap, and if not, check out your local repertory theaters or community theaters. There have been some amazing shows to hit the stages over the past few years, and chances are, you’ve only seen them on DVD (e.g. The Producers, Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hairspray… why not seem them all live?)

6. Laser Tag and Cosmic Bowling

Playing pseudo-sports in the dark, under black lights and glowing neon? It’s like a graffiti party, without the “Who the hell wrote that” factor the next morning! Let out your competitive streak by challenging your friends to a game or two, and follow up with a greasy trip to the 24-hour diner for some Disco Fries. Your arteries will hate you, but it’ll be a refreshing, welcome change.

7. Check Out Your Campus Calendar

Don’t feel like finding a DD or selling your soul for gas money? Tons of colleges these days are sponsoring quality entertainment on the weekends, in an effort to prevent their students from binge drinking for 72 hours straight. From music events to movie screenings to themed activities in the student union, you can get your fun on for cheap, or, even better, free, and you never have to worry about the cops busting up your good time.