To see a video on ‘Rockin’ the Storm Out’, click here.
Cloud cover and a cool breeze tried their best Sunday to cool off a sweltering parking lot at Walk-On’s, but four Louisiana bands only made it hotter.The performers and a host of media personalities, including WAFB sports anchor Jacques Doucet and ESPN Radio’s Eric Lacassin, united to ease frustration in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.The bands, including Soundbyte, A Band Named Sue, Bandryland and headliner The Chris LeBlanc Band, teamed up with the  Louisiana Chapter of The American Red Cross to raise money for hurricane victims.While charity benefit concerts are nothing new, four bands playing for free is rare. Avery Davidson, former WAFB weekend anchor, Soundbyte guitarist and coordinator of the event, “Rockin’ the Storm Out,” wouldn’t have had it any other way.”When it’s your community, when it’s your people and you know that money is going somewhere good, you don’t care whether you get paid or not,” Davidson said. “If we get paid, we’re taking money away from the cause, and I don’t want to do that.”Davidson said the Red Cross is already borrowing funds in the wake of Gustav and Ike to assist in recovery efforts, and he wanted to do all he could to help.Kendall Hebert, public relations director for the Louisiana Capital Area Chapter of the Red Cross, said the American Red Cross depleted its funds before Gustav ever struck.”We’ve been borrowing from banks and financial institutions for a while now,” Hebert said. “So we’ve set a national goal of raising $100 million to help with relief efforts. We’re at $23 million right now and this concert can be a big help.”Tickets cost $10 and the concert lasted from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.Each band performed crowd pleasers like Foo Fighters and Johnny Cash covers. A Band Named Sue even featured a Johnny Cash impersonator.That type of fun is exactly what Davidson banked on to bring the community a little excitement.”Baton Rouge has been beat down,” Davidson said. “Our traffic still stinks. People are still without power. We’ve got people who have lost their homes. We’ve got all this crap to deal with and we just want to take all that, get all that negative, all that frustration and turn into one big positive energy for this town.”Some said they thought the bands succeeded.”Events like this are inspiring,” said Lauren Mendes, University alumna. “This event is amazing. Putting this together really shows that people can come together to help. And that’s a really good thing.” Baton Rouge resident Evan Smith said he thought the concert was relaxing and good for the community.And to Davidson, community is the most important thing.”It was amazing how little I was told ‘No’ to any part of this event,” Davidson said. “People from every part of the community helped out. Councilman Mickey Skyring did not bat an eye at approving this event. Casey Rayburn Hicks with the Sheriff’s office helped out with security. This is the community coming together to help one another, and that’s all we wanted to do.”About 80 people attended the event, with most trickling in as it cooled off later in the day. Hebert said while she hoped to ‘pack the house,’ if any money was donated to the Red Cross, the event was a success.”If it gets the community together and gets some money for the hurricane victims, it’s a good thing,” Davidson said. “And that’s all we wanted to do. You do something like this because its the right thing to do.”—- Contact Contact Abraham Felix at [email protected]