Rock 4 Change

Picture this for a Saturday night in the Tri-parish area. There’s sweet sounding music blaring in the background while you hold a cold beverage of your choice in your hands.

And when the music pauses, energetic, but informative college students are on the stage spitting out important tidbits of information about a cause important to Louisiana’s future.

Sounds like a recipe for a good evening, right?

If your answer to the above question is yes, then you should probably head to The City Club of Houma on Nov. 6 for Rock 4 Change: An Awareness Concert for Stand Up 4 LA, a non-profit organization working to raise awareness for higher education in Louisiana amidst the current budget cuts crisis.

Local bands Sons of William, The AutoPilots and Autumn High will be performing throughout the night in an event that will blend a rally with a college-like party, according to Stand Up 4 LA member and Nicholls State art senior Amy Mahler.

“We’ve been having events and we’ve heard feedback from some college students that maybe they were boring or different things like that, and maybe they weren’t having fun, so they didn’t want to get involved,” Mahler said. “So we decided to think about the fact that we’re all college students, too, and we’re trying to fight these budget cuts, but in order to have fun as well, we thought this would be a really fun event to raise awareness and have a good time.”

What should make the event doubly fun according to City Club employee Chris Recinos is the quality of the three performances.

Sons of William – David Stark on drums and vocals, Joe Stark on vocals and guitar and Jen Janet’ on vocals and bass – is a Louisiana-based rock/alternative band with three released albums, including the latest album, titled, “War Carnivals” on Red Lick Records.

Likewise, the Autopilots are Houma-based with Tri-parish natives Ethan Belanger and Matthew Meche joining Gabriel Delaney and Zack Blum in a group that is “punk-rock influenced,” according to Delaney.

“We are not a punk band, but for my sound, punk was extremely influential,” Delaney said on the band’s official website. “You’ve got to get into it, [but] it’s way more rock ‘n’ roll than people want to admit.”

Regardless of the style, Recinos said both Sons of William and The AutoPilots have continually gathered steam throughout the area, which bodes well for Stand Up 4 LA followers.

“Those two are pretty well known around the area and they’ve historically drawn very well,” Recinos said. “It’s actually really nice for them to be doing this for the university as a benefit kind of thing, because trust me, they could easily be making a lot of money off of this.”

The third band in the show, Autumn High, is also Houma-based. According to their official Facebook page, they are inspired by, “artists who are a little crazy.”

The band says it gets its influences from mainstream sounds like Third Eye Blind, Kings of Leon and Matchbox 20.

“I’m very excited that all of these bands are doing this for our cause,” Mahler said. “And I’m even more excited to be there to hear them in person.”

The Nicholls student added that the band’s willingness to show support for its home community shows a lot about its character and love for their Tri-parish supporters.

“I don’t think it’s always about making money and trying to be the best and trying to get on top,” Mahler said. “It’s about being the best, while giving back to your community and that’s exactly what these bands are doing right now, and we’re so very appreciative.”

The format for the benefit will be a little different from that of a regular concert, according to Recinos.

“It will be a mix between people from Stand Up! getting up on stage and the bands playing,” Recinos said. “It’s basically an awareness concert basically to get people involved about it. And then once the bands leave the stage, we’ll probably have a DJ there to play some dance music for everyone the rest of the night.”

So if one is looking for something to do, and they’re interested in benefiting a good cause, Rock 4 Change just might be the thing for you, according to Mahler, who said she urges anyone on the fence to come out and make new friends in support of Louisiana’s higher education.

“Of all the events that people hear about and end up thinking twice about going to or helping out at, if this is the event that you’re thinking about, then this is definitely the one that you should come out to,” Mahler said. “Because it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be informational. And it’s going to be musical. I mean, look how many great bands we have coming to play. So it’s going to just a great time for a great cause.”