Break out your lighters and rotten vegetables and show your love - or hate - for the battle of local bands performing at the Future Rock Stars of America benefit concert tomorrow.
The event will promote awareness for the Opening Minds Through the Arts Project and will hit campus from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. And not only is there free music, but there's also a raffle fund-raiser.
"People can win lots of great prizes from the raffle," said Rachel Keller, a liberal arts senior and the national director of the University Activities Board.
And don't worry about having to eat your rotten veggies; food from several local restaurants will be available.
The battle of bands, which includes Gorilla Behind Bars, Elsewhere, Troy's Bucket and Haley Jane, will be at the Main Gate Square stage on University Boulevard.
The Park Student Union stage, located outside by the volleyball courts, will house choir, band and orchestra performances from elementary and middle school students. The Women in Music Showcase will also perform, which includes a Loveseat featuring Christine Moussa, an undeclared sophomore.
All the local bands performing consist of UA students, including political science senior Bryon Carpenter of Troy's Bucket and undeclared freshman Ian Anderson of Elsewhere.
Troy's Bucket, a ska punk band, took its name from a reference in the classic film "Goonies," said Carpenter, a trumpet player.
"We tried to pick something as obscure as possible so it'd be our own," he said.
The seven-piece band has a setup identical to Reel Big Fish and a sound to match. Well, almost. With punk and metal influences, Carpenter said the band is "punkier" than the typical ska band. (A Rancid kind of punk, not the pop Good Charlotte-esque kind of punk.)
"We're a very diverse group of people," Carpenter said. "We've got metal influences as far as Slayer, Misfits, all the way to Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Goldfinger."
In its five years together, Troy's Bucket has created a following in Tucson and Phoenix. That's to be expected when you open up for bands like The Slackers and Fishbone.
All members of the band are either attending the UA or have attended in the past. Troy's Bucket was started when trombone players Mike Schmidt and Alan Hunt (who both played in the UA marching band) got together, and then approached Carpenter and others to put a band together.
Troy's Bucket released its first self-titled EP last fall and will be releasing its first full-length album in mid-April. Since the band members write all of their songs, don't expect a bunch of sappy ska covers of bad pop songs.
"It's a collaborative effort," Carpenter said of the band's writing process.
Anderson, along with all the other members of Elsewhere, is from Yuma and describes the band's "aggressive rock" sound as "Thursday meets Incubus."
"Our singer looks like Brandon Boyd, so we always end up getting compared to Incubus," he said.
Other influences include Thrice, the softer sounds of Further Seems Forever and even classic rock like Lynard Skynard.
When it comes to Elsewhere's music, "Everything is all original," Anderson said. As is the band's name.
"The name came up randomly because we couldn't decide on a name, and it was just something that me and my friend used to say," Anderson said. "Like, 'Oh, where's so-and-so?' and we would say, 'He's elsewhere.' Everybody hates the name, but we've had it for so long that it's just kinda stuck with us."
Elsewhere has released its first EP "Solutions for a Severed Heart" and will open for Sugar Ray, Pennywise and Unwritten Law Saturday, the last day of the Tempe Music Festival.
UAB, Tucson Unified School District, Main Gate Square Merchants, the Park Student Union and the Women's Resource Center sponsor the OMA event.
For more info on the bands, check out troysbucket.com and elsewheremusic.com.