Three bands and one comedy act performed at Greenfest Saturday in hopes of raising funds and providing live entertainment for Eastern students.

Greenfest was a fund-raiser for the campus Green Party, a Recognized Student Organization, and was organized by students Kelly Bryan, a freshman undecided major, and Jeremy Pelzer, a junior social science major.

Bryan said the Green Party was “trying to promote the music scene in Charleston and maybe motivate people to spread music around.”

The first act at Greenfest was Rebekah’s Tape from Minonk. The band members are Shawn Cummings on bass guitar, Dustin Freeman on drums, guitar and bass, Mike Richards on guitar, drums and vocals and Cory Bengtsen on bass and guitar.

Freeman said his group played music that was “light rock with edge.”

The group agreed they were very excited about participating in a concert at Eastern, and would love to be called back for more shows.

Rebekah’s Tape has been together for approximately six to seven years.

The night’s only comedy act was Lunchbox Voodoo, but the performers were not at full force because some members were not in attendance. The performers did six skits all varying in length.

Lunchbox Voodoo is a sketch comedy and the members write their own sketches.

Andrew Reaves, a Lunchbox Voodoo member, compared their routine to such sketch shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad TV.”

The comedians participated in the show for a chance to perform publicly. Their next event is at 8 p.m. Thursday in McKinney Hall.

SEE GREENFEST u Page 5

The second band to take the stage was Empyrean from Arlington Heights.

Empyrean consists of drummer Scott Hoeft, bass backup and vocalist Brandon Capetillo, lead guitarist Dan Wade and guitarist and lead vocalist Mike Chorvat.

The group compares themselves to the Foo Fighters, the Marvelous 3 and Cheap Trick.

Wade said the band had a good time, despite the lack of a big crowd.

“We had a surprisingly good time playing here, because when we got here there was almost no one in the Ballroom,” Wade said.

Capetillo, Chorvat and Hoeft have been together for six years, with Wade joining them two years later.

The band performed 11 songs with their one cover, which was The Who’s “Baba O’ Reilly.”

The headline band of the night was Green Jenkins, which consists of bass guitarist Dave Christensen, drummer Jim Standerfer, alto and tenor sax, kazoo and electric guitarist Waylan Schroeder and acoustic rhythm guitar and vocalist Ryan Groff.

Groff was originally the only one scheduled to play, but in the past month Christensen and Standerfer joined to create Green Jenkins, with Schroeder joining the band a week later.

The band thought there was a good response considering the small size of the audience.

Half of Green Jenkins’ songs were covers and the other was their own music. The band did covers of Radiohead, Ryan Adams and Elton John.

Standerfer said the name Green Jenkins is shrouded in mystery and is up for interpretation.

The band parted ways after the Greenfest, but Groff still plans to play solo at The Uptowner with appearances by Schroeder on Sunday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Students who attended the Greenfest said they enjoyed the festival.

“I wanted to see what the bands in Charleston were like,” said Jackie Haskin, a freshman art major.

However, some audience members thought the turnout was disappointing.

“I wish more people would come, it is hard to get people out to Eastern’s events anymore, it is really sad,” said Monica Strazzante, a recent Eastern alumni and a member of the Green Party.