April 27 pre-concert ‘grease talk’ part of SU Showcase events

Prior to taking the stage at Syracuse University’s Jabberwocky Café on Wednesday night, April 27, the eco-friendly indie band Big Tree will give a 4 p.m. vegetable oil vehicle demonstration at the loading dock of Ernie Davis Hall, 619 Comstock Ave.

The Big Tree “grease talk” and free concert to follow at 7:30 p.m. are both open to the public and part of this week’s SU Showcase attractions leading up to the May 2 daylong campus event.

During the grease talk, Big Tree band members will demonstrate how they filter used vegetable oil to run their specially modified touring van. The band is big on sustainability and held an online fundraiser a couple of years ago to come up with the $8,000 needed to convert the vehicle to run on veggie oil. Now, they tour to gigs in their eco-van and will often give grease talks as part of their concerts.

Big Tree bills itself as a psychedelic pop band for naturalists. These five good friends–Kaila McIntyre-Bader, Luke Bace, Colin Fahrner, Dan Pirello and recent addition Laura Schwecherl–have created a sound that taps into organic folk, greasy blues, ambient
rock and modal jazz. Originally based in Brooklyn, N.Y., they now call the bay area of California home.

SU Showcase “Sustainability for a Livable Future” just announced its Showcase Fellows lineup and released its full schedule of events slated for May 2 in Schine Student Center. For more information on SU Showcase 2011, including volunteering to help set up and run the day’s activities, visit http://sushowcase.syr.edu/Registration_2011.html.

Website: http://sushowcase.syr.edu/

Contact Person: Will Wallak, wawallak@syr.edu, 443-5887