BY BRANDY SCAGLIONE
Lions’ Pride Photo Editor

Theta Phi Alpha has done it again with this year’s second annual Rock Against Cancer, which raised over $1,500. This year the concert was held in the gymnasium, avoiding space and venue conflicts that may have occurred like last year.

For only a $10 donation, students received a complimentary t-shirt and a concert that provided 5 bands and was about 5 hours in length (talk about an awesome deal!).

“This years bands were so good and super Nice. It was amazing getting to work with one of my favorite bands, Between the Trees, and their performance made all the stress and craziness well worth it,” said Shelly Peterson, the social chair for Theta Phi Alpha.

The concert began at 7 p.m. on April 4 with local power-pop band Just Say When from Panama City, FL. Doing a great job as an opening band, Just Say When quickly had student’s heads bobbing.
Just Say When was quickly followed by another local band from Orlando titled Shut Up and Dance. The band’s name is essentially the best way to describe their reaction on Saint Leo students. Within the first song of their set, Shauna’s powerful vocals and Joey’s keyboard made the crowd, well, shut up and dance.

As the crowd’s energy rose, the next band had a tough set to follow, in order to keep the students moving. However, this seemed like an easy task for The Shoreline. The Shoreline is a rock/powerpop band from Orlando with enough energy even before the show, as they goofed around backstage with the other bands. The entire crowd was moving at this point and even a few crowd surfers were spotted. The Shoreline’s set was probably the best that could both energize and wind down the crowd within the change of their songs.

Now for a change of pace, alternative/emo band Chasing Thrill had a few mosh pits forming. It seems the crowd changed drastically as a lot more males, who were originally sitting in the bleachers head bobbing with their girlfriends, came down to thrash around for this set.

The lighting for Chasing Thrill’s set was very dark and dramatic, with a lot of strobe effects that enhanced their fast paced style. Chasing Thrill provided a much-needed change in pace from the earlier powerpop bands and created an excellent set to lead in to Between the Trees’ set.

The final band to play this year’s second annual Rock Against Cancer was Between the Trees. The audience became much more crowded, with many seats now vacant in the bleachers. Lead singer Ryan Kirkland had most girls’ hearts melting with his smooth voice and even smoother lyrics. Almost every student in the crowd seemed to know every song off their set list, and were happily singing and dancing along.