-- See video of the event at the bottom of this page --
For people who love to rock and vote, Thursday evening was a dream come true.
Rock the Vote, hosted by Syrus Yarbrough from "Real World: Boston" and Brooke LaBarbera from "Real World: Denver," took over the Bell Memorial Union Auditorium.
For those too cool to watch corporate music television, Rock the Vote is a successful political awareness campaign that began in 1992 and teamed with MTV.
It aims to "engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country," according to the organization's Web site.
Blending music, celebrity and cheesy public service announcements, the program has helped register hundreds of thousands of young voters, according to the Web site.
With November's election looming, A.S. Presents decided to have Rock the Vote come to campus and spread the word. Danny Glazier, a music industry major, organized the event, he said.
"We want to make people on campus aware that this is the biggest election of their lifetime," Glazier said.
The show kicked off with Aubrey Debauchery and The Puke Boots' blend of alternative, country, rock and punk. The band put on an amazing show to an almost empty auditorium.
Debauchery, the gorgeous, pint-sized lead singer of the group, danced and strummed her way through the set with a cherry-red Cadillac of a guitar.
The greatest tragedy of the event was that it seemed more people showed up to see the washed-up reality TV stars pontificate about politics than came to see an amazingly talented band.
After the band wrapped up, the night's speakers took the stage one after the other. More students trickled into the auditorium as the evening went on, but most kept going in and out. Even when things settled down and the students took their seats, the auditorium was still shy of half-full.
The speakers included students, faculty members and politicians. While tables were set up in the back of the auditorium to register new voters, the Student Democratic Club was handing out fliers and recruiting new members.
Senior Tyler Hanes, a political science major, thought the event was a great chance to get students interested, he said.
"The biggest thing we're trying to do is get people involved," Hanes said. "Getting people registered is a big part of that."
Representation for student Republicans was almost nonexistent. Senior A.J. Kuck, the newly elected president of Chico State Republicans talked briefly from the stage. Next to speak was Steve Thompson, chairman of the Butte County Republican Party, who chided the students about not voting while soldiers were dying in Iraq.
The night's main attractions, Yarbrough and LaBarbera, took the stage to lukewarm applause and commenced awkward chitchat with the audience and each other. While Yarbrough was charismatic and comfortable on stage, LaBarbera seemed nervous and out of place. After talking shortly about themselves and some political issues, the duo delved into the crowd for questions.
Many students took turns asking the hosts their opinions on a number of hot topics, from the environment to education. This went on for an hour, as Yarbrough mostly talked over LaBarbera and made her seem about as useful as the stool she was sitting on. At about
7:30 p.m., the lecturing came to a close and the rock portion of Rock the Vote was once again brought front and center. Unfortunately, few remained to watch Aubrey Debauchery and The Puke Boots perform a second set.
Courtney Bell, a 22-year-old, self-described super, super senior," said the event was good overall.
"I wish there had been more local politicians," Bell said. "But I thought it was cool."
Eric Wendt can be reached at ewendt@theorion.com
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