Often, remembering those who have passed is a somber occasion.

English professor Graham Lewis, who died October 21, 2008, was not the sort of person who would have wanted such a tribute.

His wife, Kit Morice, the curator of education at the Tarble Arts Center, decided to have a tribute that Lewis would have loved.

“It’s going to be a fun evening,” said English professor Dan Tessitore. “It’s going to be a rock n’ roll show.”

The rock show, Graham Jam, is at 9 p.m. Saturday at Top of the Roc, 410 6th St., Charleston.

The Whiskey Daredevils will headline the show, with The Porn Again Christians and MugWump Specific opening.

Tessitore, who will emcee the event, met Lewis when they attended graduate school together in 1991.

Since that time, the two remained close friends, eventually becoming colleagues.

“He’s a big part of the reason I’m here in Charleston,” Tessitore said. “He was one of my best friends.”

Nearly everyone involved in putting the show on was a friend of Lewis’.

“He was the friendliest and most open-minded person I’ve ever met,” said Jake Pope, a former student of Lewis and the drummer for the Porn Again Christians. “I can guarantee that there is no one that ever met Graham that didn’t like him.”

Mike Knoop, the owner of Roc’s and former owner of the Uptowner, also knew Lewis.

“He and all of his friends have been customers of mine for 28 years,” Knoop said.

Pope said his band is excited to play in tribute of their friend, and that this is only the first concert for Lewis.

“There will be more to come,” Pope said. “We decided to play this first one because we all loved Graham, and what better way to honor him than with live music? He loved live music. He lived for it.”

The show is not a memorial of his death, so much as it is a tribute to his life.

“Graham would want people to get loose, do whatever makes them happy and experience one of the many things he enjoyed so much, live music,” Pope said.

“It’s the kind of party he would want us to have,” Tessitore said.