Ceramics by day, rock'n'roll by night.

This year's AfterFest, the annual concert held the Saturday night after the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, will feature State College natives Boost, Philly rock'n'rollers Pepper's Ghost, and the punkish pop-rock of Lit.

Kevin Baldes, Lit bassist, said he and the group are excited about the band's new self-titled album.

"Absolutely, we worked a year and a half on it," Baldes said. "There's been a lot of changes, a lot of ups and downs. To pull off the album we pulled off is pretty great."

Baldes said the band's been through quite a lot over the years.

"We all met in junior high," Baldes said. "We've been a band for, like, 15 years roughly. It sounds like we might be old, but we're not. We went from scamming on chicks at the mall to having kids and owning houses."

Baldes said those people coming just to see the band's hits might have to sit through quite a few other songs.

"With four albums under our belt, we've got a lot of stuff to choose from," Baldes said. "We can tailor our show to rile up the drunken college kids if we want."

Just don't bring your expectations.

"We just played a show in San Diego, and I was hanging out afterwards, meeting some fans. This guy who had a Slayer shirt on comes up to me and says, 'you guys are great, I'm gonna go buy all your albums tomorrow.' That was definitely not what I expected," Baldes said. "Live, we're just a whole different animal."

Boost lead singer Bart Hipp said his band is doing what it can to high-light as many self-penned songs as possible.

"Still playing mostly covers, but we've been trying to work in more originals," Hipp said. "It's hard in State College, but usually if you play a cover, then go into an original and after it's done say 'hey, that was one of our tunes,' people start to catch on."

Though he'd be reluctant to jump onstage with them, Hipp said he's a Lit aficionado.

"We actually cover some of their songs," he said. "I really like Lit, I've actually been a fan of theirs since their breakthrough album."

Hipp said his band's set list will revolve around the feeling of the crowd.

"We'll probably mix it up as much
as possible," he said. "A lot of the college students like the staple '80s songs
they hear in bars, so we'll try to tap into that."

Rob Bennett of Pepper's Ghost highlighted his love of State College.

"We love playing Penn State," Bennett said. "There are tons of people from Philly up there, and it's a beautiful campus."

Bennett claims he's looking forward to the late-night AfterFest crowd.

"It sounds like it's gonna be a blast," Bennett said.