"Thirsty Thursday?" More like, "Thrashing Thursday."
WSOU 89.5 FM, Seton Hall's Pirate Radio Station and Student Affairs are presenting "LollanoBooza," a sobriety-themed free concert out on the Green Thursday, Sept. 16 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., so save your alcohol for disinfecting wounds.
A twist on Lollapalooza, an annual music festival featuring artists ranging from Jane's Addiction to Incubus, the event will also feature musical talent and fun minus the inebriation.
Andrew Brereton, assistant to the vice president of Student Affairs teamed up with Mark Maben, the general manager of WSOU and applied for the grant from the State Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control back in January 2010.
"We believe alcohol awareness and the prevention of the abuse of alcohol is an important issue; it's a perennial issue in higher education," he said. "It's something that every college institution is looking for creative and effective ways to address."
After Seton Hall was awarded the grant in April 2010, Brereton and his colleagues began to develop the event, utilizing the ever-resourceful WSOU to reel in the talent.
"WSOU has been really phenomenal in collaborating on this event and they really gave a unique spin," he said. "Any institution can apply, but not everyone has WSOU."
As the Number 1 college radio station in the New York metro area, WSOU is an ideal platform for unsigned bands to be heard.
"We air a program on Wednesday nights called ‘Street Patrol' for local and unsigned bands in the NY and NJ area," said Brian Wisowaty station manager at WSOU.
"We invite people to submit artists whose music fits within our genre," he said. "We'll play a song then take listeners that call up and say ‘Hey, do you want us to keep playing it or is it terrible, should we get rid of it forever?' "
WSOU generally adheres to a strict regimen of heavy metal and according to Wisowaty, LollanoBooza will keep the rock heavy.
"We're not the average college radio station," he said. "We have a 24/7 operation and we wanted to make sure that while the key for the show is music that's appealing to everybody, we didn't want to sell out what we do and go in the direction of hip-hop or top 40; if we're going to put our stamp on it, we want to have a little flexibility there."
At LoolanoBooza, the music will definitely rock, and rock hard.
The three bands that will perform at the event all are based in New Jersey: Union City's Cypher Seer, North Jersey's Sexy Heroes, and Union County's Disaster Fantastic.
Put in charge of gathering the talent for LollanoBooza, WSOU's music director Omar Ahmad was able to put together this eclectic group of artists.
"Sexy Heroes is a Ska, Pop-Punk band that reminds me of Fall Out Boy," Ahmad said.Disaster Fantastic was added to the event after the Texan metal group Die Among Heroes canceled their tour. "The band really stepped up," Ahmad said. "Playing at Seton Hall University under WSOU's name is a great opportunity for them."
The final group, Cypher Seer, has played at various venues in Manhattan including Gramercy Theatre, Nokia Theatre, and BB King's.
"Cypher Seer has a lot of traditional stuff," Ahmad said. "They're a fun metal band."
Sergio Ribeiro, 30, is the guitarist for Cypher Seer and describes the band's music as, "a melding of all different types of influences."
"I'd like to think we create a unique brand of metal that hasn't been classified," he said.
Being that LollanoBooza is an event that endorses an alcohol-free lifestyle and will take place at a Catholic university, Ribeiro said he was honored to have been offered the opportunity.
"I still wear a cross around my neck," the Catholic-raised metal-head said. "We are all aware of the repercussions of abusing alcohol and drugs, so I think it's a great message to support; I was on board to do this gig before, but when Omar told me the cause of the event, I was even more on board."
The message of LollanoBooza proclaims that fun needs no aid from alcohol.
"That's why the tag-line that we're using for this is ‘Loud, Proud, and Sober'," said Andrew Brereton. "It sort of builds on the reputation of WSOU which is known for playing the loudest rock."
For more information about LollanoBooza, you can contact Meghan Codey at Meghan.codey@shu.edu or visit the website and go to Calendars-Events.
Taylor Korsak can be reached at taylor.korsak@student.shu.edu.
