It’s ethereal, almost.
Beyond the ledge of the stage, out in the blackness, white lights float through the air, forming a not-quite-cohesive but still beautiful wave. They’re like stars speckled in the night sky – the perfect backdrop to Poison’s “Something to Believe In”.
Guitar in hand, Jeffrey Stirl croons the opening verses into the microphone. Although the audience gathered is modest in size, the emotion is tangible when the rousing chorus arrives: “And give me somethin’ to believe in // If there’s a Lord above // And give me somethin’ to believe in // Oh, Lord arise.”
Still below, the star-studded tapestry of phone flashlights ripples.
“I love being on stage,” Stirl said. “I love it. It doesn’t matter to me if there’s one person in the audience or if it’s 15,000. I love performing live.”
Stirl — a professional communications teacher outside of being an occasional rockstar — took the stage at the Waves of Aid concert on Feb. 15. The event, organized by DECA and the Rock Club, also served as a fundraiser for victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton – that’s the reason why Stirl didn’t hesitate to join the ensemble, and also why he chose the song he ended up performing.
“[“Something to Believe In” is] really a song more relevant to what we’re doing with this, because it’s a song about people in need that needs something, either it’s hope or finances,” Stirl said. “It starts off with a guy singing about one of those televangelists that take money from people, and then he sings about his best friend that was a Vietnam veteran dying alone. And the last verse is about people living on the streets just down the road from wealthy people. He’s like, how can there be such a contrast right there? But we see it every day.”
Music has always been a constant in Stirl’s life. He’s known for blasting hard rock during passing periods, and keeps an electric guitar propped beneath the whiteboard in his classroom.
“Whatever it is, whether it’s something smooth like the Eagles’ “Hotel California”, or if it’s something heavy like Anthrax or Metallica, I’m just going to blast it,” Stirl said. “Especially if I’m singing along, it helps to get that stress out. But on the other hand, it still works if I’m having a great day because now I’m even more excited, and I want to express that in some way, shape, or form.”
The first two songs that really “hooked” Stirl were old country classics: “Elvira” by the Oak Ridge Boys and “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. Later, he got into 80s hard rock: Guns N’ Roses’ “Appetite for Destruction” and Metallica with “The Black Album”.
“That kind of music for me just dominated everything,” Stirl said. “It was everywhere it was on. I’d start off my day, playing whatever record, and it would actually help me get through those pesky teenage years, especially the high school I went to, which was not kind to me, for the most part. It helped get me through it.”
Stirl’s first guitar, a Yamaha Acoustic, was a gift from his friend’s dad,
“That was in 1991, and the first thing I ever tried to play on it was Rolling Stones’ “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,’” Stirl said. “I still can’t play that song, but from there I started learning the chords and just fell in love with it. I’m not a great guitarist, but I can play.”
To this day, Stirl picks up his guitar every couple weeks to strum a couple chords, but even as a teacher, music is never far from his mind – junior Joshua Varghese asked Stirl to sponsor the Rock Club at the start of the school year.
“As a sponsor, he’s always been very active in the discussions,” Varghese, the co-president of Rock Club, said. “We do stuff like ranking albums and artists and he has an interest in a lot of different types of rock music. He’s always chimed in to the discussions [because] he’s very well-read about rock history. We’ve always found that he’s given a lot of information about things that have happened throughout rock history.”
When DECA began advertising for the Waves of Aid concert, senior Lola Contreras, the other Rock Club co-president, said Rock Club wanted to use its community to contribute to something meaningful. Contreras and Varghese worked with Bella Averilla and Sahana Sivakumar to organize and promote the event. Ultimately, Contreras said it went much better than expected.
“I got some help from the parents in the community and information about the concert was spreading around on all sorts of neighborhood groups,” Varghese said. “I think as a community, a lot of people did actually help spread the word and that was really amazing. All the performers brought their families and generally we had [a] much bigger turnout than we expected.”
Backstage, half-jokingly, Varghese asked Stirl to perform.
“He just disappeared for a while while we were setting up performers,” Varghese said. “He rolled in with his huge amp and guitar and he was just like “I’m here”. I was like, that’s awesome, he’s gonna perform, and so that’s what happened.”
Earlier, Contreras and Varghese tried to start a flashlight wave during their performance, with little success. Stirl, though, was able to initiate one himself.
“It was really awesome just to turn around and see everyone all joined together,” Contreras said. “It really also represented how much of a success that it kind of turned out to be. We were really worried in the days and weeks leading up to the concert that we wouldn’t raise that much money, but it was really beautiful just to see the effort of everyone out there and knowing that hopefully their money was going to help people.”
Following his performance, Stirl said his goal is to encourage others to also try new things.
“Hopefully, I can expose [students] to something new, whether it’s music or an idea,” Stirl said. “I really like it when a student tells me ‘I didn’t know I had any talent until I came across you.’ I love that. To me, that’s one of the best compliments I ever get as a teacher.”
The impact of one song, one teacher, or one night of music — it’s magical, almost.
