"This show is a lot more mellow than most of our shows," Myers said.
Asylum is somewhat known for its punk and hardcore shows, but Jonah Matragna, who is flying in from San Francisco to perform, is more upbeat and milder than its usual selections, Myers said.
"A lot of people who like punk music will like him because he has a lot of connections with punk bands and punk labels, and at the same time he has a mellower style," Myers said. "Asylum goers and people who aren't will enjoy it, too, because it's kind of a more mainstream sound with a punk ethic, if you will," Myers said.
Zac Chappell (senior-mechanical engineering), the treasurer of Asylum, was involved with coordinating the event.
"The two opening bands were chosen democratically. For [Matranga], I went ahead and contacted him because we needed something that was within our budget and would workout, and he got back to me first," he said. "[Matranga] plays with an acoustic guitar -- it's a really intimate show when he plays. There's a lot of audience participation."
Chappell said Asylum strives to book musical acts that might not have a chance to play at other Penn State venues.
"What we try to do is not really well represented by other organizations," he said. "The bands that we book vary pretty dramatically from show to show. This show is pretty mild."
The other two bands, Pick an Exit and The Progress, hail from New Jersey.
"The one band, The Progress, kind of sounds like The Promise Ring", Myers said. "Pick an Exit is a little bit hotter, they definitely have a little bit more of a punk sound than the other two acts, but they're still not hardcore punk or anything so they're a good fit with the other two acts."
James Reber, a composition and music business management major at Berklee College of Music, plays bass and is a backup singer for the native Westfield, New Jersey, band Pick an Exit.
"We're a rock band that draws influences from Ben Folds Five and Something Corporate, so we have, like, a pop sound with an edge," he said. "It's like an alternative sound, basically."
Reber said Pick an Exit has had three albums and toured nationally, but this is its first performance at University Park.
"We've played in Pittsburgh and Philly but we've never made it to Penn State," he said.
Although Jonah Matranga is a soloist, Reber said Pick an Exit will be playing backup for a portion of his set.
"I know we have at least five songs with him," he said. "He's a solo guy; in general he likes to play by himself, but he asked us to play with him."
Evan Statton, lead singer and pianist for Pick an Exit, is a senior film/TV major at New York University.
Statton said he began playing the piano at a young age.
"I started playing when I was like 4, but classical music -- I took classical lessons for a long time," he said. "I kind of got tired of that and began jazz improv lessons, and jazz improv kind of moved into rock improv."
Singing, however, is a more recent musical endeavor, Statton said.
"We auditioned a whole lot of singers while we were trying to put this band together -- I think we had 30 of them," he said, adding that none of the singers auditioning was up to par, so Statton filled the void. "We got to practicing, and you know you get better over time with practice. I've been singing almost exactly two years."
Statton said the band's current lineup came together in April 2004 and played with Matranga in New Jersey.
"We played with [Matranga] once before in Scotch Plains," he said. "We're really excited to play with him."
