John Riccitelli, the band’s publicist, said one place that touring bands have found success in making money has been fraternity shows. 

“There’s a changing trend in the taste of college kids  — particularly Greek life kids — that, there’s kind of a shift from having DJs and cover bands to real actual bands playing original music,” he said.

Riccitelli said this trend is becoming more popular due to the number of kids who go to music festivals. High schoolers go to these events and become hardcore music fans, Culbreth said. It’s a break away from the typical Spotify playlists that are played at parties.

The three men agree that it’s not an easy shift to make from DJs to quality live bands, but they can see the change start to happen.

Culbreth said the stigma just needs to be broken.

“There’s kind of a stigma behind fraternity shows, you know, they’re ‘college-y,’ or there’s kind of like that douchiness to it,” he said. “There’s a bunch of guys with their shirts off, promiscuous girls and a shitty cover band in the background.”

But bands like Stop Light Observations are trying to break the stereotype. Culbreth and Duffie both said the fraternities they have performed for welcome the band more than what they’ve experienced at other venues. They enjoy connecting with the students, who become fans if they like the music.

“Open-minded fraternities are going to be the ones that pave the way for this next generation of how artists can perform music and how people can find out about bands,” Culbreth said.

At their shows, Stop Light Observations usually plays an equal ratio of cover songs to originals.

Duffie said he’s excited about this particular show because they are putting on the whole production. The band set up the event, including everything from the stage and speakers to the confetti blowers.

“Getting to be able to play with everybody on their last day of college, (that's) such a special thing," Duffie said.

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