Rock music blared from the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium at St. Thomas on Wednesday when local bands, Word Party and Howler performed.

The concert was put together by St. Thomas’ Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association and KUST Radio.

MEISA President senior Michael Cyrs said it was the group’s second concert.

“Concerts are our biggest thing and then this one was kind of a step up from that we’re getting a big local act,” he said. “Howler just signed with a major label… which is a big deal.”

MEISA Secretary, KUST Social Media Director and junior Emily Leininger said she suggested Howler after it was brought up in a KUST meeting.

Howler and Word Party are both local indie-rock bands. Both bands played upbeat and energetic music.

Word Party singer, guitarist and sophomore Luke Darger said he enjoyed performing despite the echoing auditorium.

“I thought we played pretty well, but it’s not the ideal venue for rock music,” he said.

Sophomore Abby Graf said she enjoyed the concert and plans to attend more MEISA events in the future.

“It’s always cool to see students who go here performing because I feel like there’s so many bands and stuff that go to St. Thomas that we don’t really hear about,” she said. “So I think shows like this are a really good way to showcase that.”

Sophomore Emily Seitz said she attended the first MEISA concert in April and enjoyed it enough to come to the next one.

“I just love seeing bands on campus. It’s really fun, especially bands with St. Thomas people in them,” she said.

Sophomore Alex Rollins said Word Party was not his taste, but he was interested to see Howler perform.

“I’m in a band myself and there were no vocals,” he said. “I don’t know, I don’t really like to dis another band.”

MEISA Vice President of booking senior Andy Smith enjoyed Howler’s performance.

“I thought they were fantastic, they rocked my world, and they really broke my expectations,” he said.

Vice PR Chair and junior Rob Rasmussen agreed with Smith’s reaction to Howler.

“They brought a lot of energy, and they had a lot of fun,” he said.

Sophomore Stephen Hegedus said he did not know about MEISA before attending the concert, but is now considering joining the club.

“For how little I knew about this concert, and what I was expecting going into it, it was just great how many people showed up and the energy that was there. It was great,” he said.

Cyrs said he hopes that MEISA will continue to grow and expand in the future.

“Hopefully in the future after we get more exposure and more people hear about it and want to get involved, then we’ll get to the point where we need tickets and things like that, and we can sort of pay our own way,” he said.

Madeline Carlson can be reached at carl8801@stthomas.edu.