The unique quality of Wichita has always been the chance to support so much local culture.

Wichita is a boom town for new breweries, contemporary music, and sports fans looking to cling to a college team with national attention. That’s why Roxy’s Downtown felt like the perfect place for Contagious Wednesday to release their first album, “Trials.”

The Wichita based band, formed in 2010 by Aaron Schoenhofer and Jared Wise, held a concert Sept. 2 to celebrate the achievement with family, friends, and Roxy’s providing drinks. Purple neon lights lit the stage, beer flowed like a college bar, and the band ran around like kids on Christmas morning.

But to get to an original album, the road was paved by a youth listening to the classics.

“When we started out it was a lot of grunge,” Wise said. “Nirvana, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and then we did some 80s covers.”

Contagious Wednesday finds inspiration through these bands and tries to blend it within their own sound.

“Jared grew upon Def Leopard,” Schoenhofer said. “I found Red Hot Chili Peppers and then worked my way to Ozzy Osbourne. That’s where it started.”

Along with their drummer, Brandon Hasting, the three-piece were beaming as physical copies of the album sold like hot cakes at the door and they were asked for them to be signed. They even passed out glow in the dark guitar picks with a logo.

But “Trials,” an acoustic outing named for the trials and tribulation of the past seven years, came from a personal place for the band.

“’Trials’ came out of a necessity really because at one point it was just me and Aaron and we were like, ‘What do we do now?’” said Wise. “So, we decided to lay the ground work for an acoustic album where the initial plan was just Aaron on guitar and me on vocals.”

“We were doing things we didn’t even think we were going to try. Trying new techniques and instruments just to have new layers for the songs.”

After being opened for by Sean Gross and Rylee Dulaney, Contagious Wednesday came out with a lively Def Leopard cover and immediately started having fun. They aren’t all about what came before though, and they showed off some serious talent of their own.

Wise’s stage presence was engaging and comfortable during their set, especially compared to what you might see in bands that got their start playing Metallica in bars. And the physical chemistry between Schoenhofer and Wise was unmistakable, infectious, and relaxing.

As for what’s next, Schoenhofer is already looking toward the future.

“It has been a while since we’ve played live, so I think we’re ready to get some of that out of our system,” Schoenhofer said. “ [We want to] get some new fans and then we want to hit the studio again. This is our unplugged material, but we want to show people what we really want to play.”