Groups host concert to increase recycling efforts on USU campus
Led Zeppelin covers, paisley and a tote bag made from plastic store sacks: There was a whole lot of recycling going on in the TSC Wednesday night.
The Rehab Your Planet: Intensive Music Therapy concert sponsored by the USU Cycling and Recycling clubs featured local bands DAH, Viewers Like You and The Rock Bandits. The concert, which was held to raise awareness and funds for both the clubs, netted about $350 and was attended by about 100 people, according to Jay Price, the Aggie Recyclers director. Though he said he would have liked to have sold more tickets, Price was pleased with the response people had to the concert.
“It went really well,” he said. “People are really stoked about DAH.”
DAH, a mixed-age band that uses banjos, accordions and fiddles, was the first to play and got the audience clapping to folk versions of Tchaikovsky and “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.”
“They’re awesome,” said Jono Huppi, an Aggie Recycler and guitar performance major. “If you had a modern western movie, they’d be the sound track.”
Ben Abbott, a member of the Recycling Club, Cycling Club and DAH, said the concert was an attempt to synthesize his interests by getting people involved in cycling, recycling and music.
“I hope we raise awareness about recycling and enthusiasm for cycling, and also have a good campus event that encourages people to know they can participate,” Abbott said.
Abbott, whose favorite thing to recycle is aluminum cans and beverage containers because of the crunching sound they make, said there are already a lot of available containers for recycling on campus, and the Recycling Club’s share of the proceeds will go to purchase more.
“I think if people realize that it’s not an inconvenience, that will really encourage them,” he said.
Viewers Like You, the second band of the night, composed a song especially for the occasion 20 minutes before their set, said Devin Felix, a senior majoring in journalism and a saxophonist for the band. People were skanking through the aisles during the ska band’s performance and even got on stage during the finale, “Recycling is Fun,” which contained the lyrics, “Mother Nature is your mom, treat her with respect.”
Felix, whose favorite thing to recycle is newspapers because of their bulk, encouraged the audience to get involved with recycling.
“All your favorite stars do it: Christina Aguilera, Jar Jar Binks, Yassar Arafat,” he said.
Kaydee Sorensen, a junior majoring in special education, was one of the people who went skanking around the TSC Auditorium.
“It’s a ska tradition,” she said. “They were really talented. They were crazy good.”
Sorensen said she’ll work to improve her recyling habits.
“I could be better. I’m going to try,” Sorensen said.
Throughout the night, the clubs held a raffle with prizes that included bike cup holders, seats and t-shirts. Ira Tibbitts, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering and president of the Cycling Club, won a large Styrofoam mannequin, which he said he intends to take to races to model the Cycling Club’s new shirts.
Tibbitts, who recycles “whenever the newspapers need to be taken out,” said he was pleased with how the concert went, especially DAH.
“I loved the variety,” he said. “They were very precise, and they had a lot of ethnic diversity. I was very impressed.”
Indira Kaljo, an undeclared freshman and Aggie Recycling vice president, was the highest bidder on a large satchel bag made from woven grocery sacks. She said the bag was worth the $12 she bid on it.
“I wanted that bag since the first day I saw it,” Kaljo said. “I thought it was so cool. It’s just another way to show if people really wanted to, they can recycle anything.”
A few fans came just for the cause, like Lauren Folkner, a senior majoring in music education and violin performance. She said her favorite thing to recycle is soda bottles because “you can put them in the little holes in the bins in the TSC!”
“That’s the only reason I came, actually,” she said. “I do recycle lots.”
Her roommate Kaitlin Neville, a junior majoring in civil engineering, said they’re supporters of both the cycling and recycling causes, saying they both try to cycle or walk everywhere.
“And we try to remember to take our own bags to the grocery store,” Neville said. “We don’t always remember, but we try.”
Not everyone was impressed with the cause, however. Ben Dixon, a junior in liberal arts, said he came to the concert just to see The Rock Bandits. He said he had not really thought much about recycling.
“Why recycle?” asked Dixon. “I don’t know. I’m assuming they do something good with it. I’ve never really asked.”
The Rock Bandits supporter Vic Run, 19, a friend of the drummer, said he came just to see the band, but he is a recycler as well.
“I drink a lot of bottled water. It’s good to reuse them,” he said.
And he gave a few standing ovations to The Rock Bandits’ ’70s-infused rock style.
“It was unusual,” Run said. “I’ve never really heard anything like that before. It was good. I like that. It’s good to have something different.”
-jenbeasley@cc.usu.edu