These shoes are made for rocking

Rock Your Socks Off Arts and Music Festival is a unique festival concept that requires you to bring a pair of "new or gently worn" shoes in exchange for paying half the ticket price at the door. According to festival founder Alex Arredondo, the shoes collected will be donated to the San Antonio community as well as other countries around the world, including Japan and Haiti. The first edition took place last February at the Limelight, he said, with about 200 pairs of shoes collected at the door.

"I'm a big festival-goer and, being there, it sort of feels like a case of self-fulfillment," said Arredondo, who teamed up with Soles 4 Souls (soles4souls.org), a nonprofit that ships shoes all over the world to help people in need. "To me, it would be 1,000 percent better if you could help someone else out while you watch the bands you love."

The next Rock Your Socks Off will take place Friday, May 4, at the Korova ($6-$8, half off if you donate a pair of shoes, 107 E Martin Street) and the lineup is impressive: on the side stage, Matt Adler (8:30 p.m.), Broken Buffalo (9:40 p.m.), Vincent Vega (11 p.m.), and The Lost Project (12:20 a.m.); on the main stage, Bleep Attack (9:05 p.m.), The Sound of Curves (10:15 p.m.), Education (11:35 p.m.), and Whiskey Shivers (1:05 a.m.).

So show your support, but don't forget to donate a pair of shoes.

"You need shoes to walk to gather food and water," Arredondo says. "They're THE most important piece of apparel. Hands down."

RYSO is not the only benefit concert taking place this week. Rockin' for a Remedy, a benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, will take place on Saturday, May 5, at the 502 Bar (502 Embassy Oaks). Music starts at 10 p.m. with Heather Go Psycho, Use of Time, Deep in the Heart, and San Francisco's MK4, a self-described "hard pop for the emotionally challenged" trio.

For this one, you only need the shoes on your feet, and $5 in your pocket.

> Email Enrique Lopetegui