On Monday, November 13th, 2023, Stockton’s SET hosted an event titled “World Kindness Day Music Night,” which featured a live musical performance by “The Neanderthals, a local Stockton-based band. The event took place in the CC Coffeehouse at 7:30 p.m. and ended around 9:00 p.m. Before the event started, SET had catering, and a gratitude table filled with stickers, mini gratitude notebooks, and bracelets with encouraging words on them such as “never quit your daydream,” “life is what you make of it,” and “be your own hero.”

The Neanderthals is an indie psychedelic band comprised of Stockton students, who are currently in the process of putting together an album. One SET member explained that they actually found out about the Neanderthals during Woodstockton’s concert last year, and they had opened for the artist who was headlining. When it came time for World Kindness Day Music Night, representatives from SET said that “we had to get them.” The Neanderthals consist of five members: Ryan Davis, Adam Sutton, Luis, Caoir (lead vocalist), and graduate student Rich Citta.

Breanna Ruiz, Executive Commitment Chair of SET, spoke with The Argo on this event. “World kindness is an important day and we wanted to do something that spreads positive energy,” she said. Ruiz then followed up by saying “we are definitely going to continue this next year, and make it bigger and better.” One of Ruiz’s main goals was for students “to leave this event a little happier.” She concluded the event with some words of encouragement for everyone in attendance: “Just be yourself, especially today is so important to be authentic.” 

In a brief interview with Hannah Cohen, the Special Event Co-Chair, The Argo asked for her take on World Kindness Day and the inspiration behind this event. “I was really happy to just plan events and I wanted to do something that would bring people together at Stockton, and to build community… with this, I noticed that today was going to be World Kindness Day and I was like, ‘I want to do something that can make people happy,'” she said.

Cohen noted that if she could give some encouragement to anybody, it would be to “keep it up…one bad experience is not a bad life. You just have to move forward—you got this. Just be strong and keep it balanced.” She explained that her main idea was to spread positivity and hopes to do more events like this in the future.

“I notice that there are a lot of mental health resources on campus…what’s important about mental health here is being able to go to people when you need it, and it’s important to have good coping mechanisms to make you feel better because sometimes it’s the little things in life that can put a smile on your face.” She then ended by saying “I hope that I could put a smile on everyone’s face and I hope they know that there will be events like this on campus to make you feel better.” 

During the event, The Neanderthals performed a couple of songs, which included original songs titled “Tokyo Express” and “The Ancient Times.” Other songs they performed were “Chambers of Reflection” by Mac Demarco, “Rose” by Innerwave, “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus” by the Strokes, and “America’s Cup,” by an Australian band named Pond. The event ended with pictures of the band members, and them promoting some new and upcoming merch. They wrapped up by telling attendees to keep an eye out for their new album.