Bands Unite In Benefit Show
Hundreds of people turned out for a good cause last Sunday at the Blue Dolphin in the Valley.
The cause: a benefit concert for Europa Pizzaria and Bakery general manager Gina Brent, who is battling leukemia.
Brent recently underwent bone marrow transplant surgery in Seattle.
The benefit included performances from four local bands - All Fall Down, Loose Endz, Kid Sister and Nothin’ Personal - all of which played for free.
Money from both admission and a raffle all went toward Brent’s hospital bills. Even the Blue Dolphin’s employees donated their night’s wages.
More than $2,700 was raised.
“This is just one step in a long journey,” said Simon Tedrow, a manager at Europa and one of the benefit’s organizers. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be done. We just want to make sure everything gets taken care of for Gina.”
Other co-organizers were Maria Bailes and Jilla Roberts.
The three have already planned another benefit for Brent, who is in a Seattle hospital. This one will be dinner, sponsored by Hales Ales, on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at Europa. A host of local celebrities will wait tables.
If you wish to send a donation, write: Europa Pizzaria and Bakery, 125 S. Wall, Spokane, WA 99204.
Elsewhere in the night
Since its birth, surreal psychedelic rocker Sky Cries Mary has always been on the cutting edge of rock. And, the Seattle septet, which plays the Zoo in Pullman tonight, has been on the cusp of cyberspace and technology, too.
Last year, the band performed the first live concert ever on the Internet, beating the Rolling Stones to the Web.
Now, the band’s label, World Domination, has teamed with Microsoft and will release a yet-to-be-titled Sky Cries Mary CD Plus, which will combine music, graphics, video and sound onto one CD. According to the band’s label, the CD Plus will be available in time for Christmas.
The band is included on a Microsoft CD Plus music sampler which is included in every package of Windows ‘95.
Sky Cries Mary’s most recent album is called “This Timeless Turning.”
What’s equally interesting about tonight’s show are the two opening bands, Seattle’s Sweet 75 and Hovercraft, which will make its Inland Northwest debut.
Female-fronted Sweet 75 deals in raucous pop-punk and features former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.
Hovercraft is led by bassist Beth Liebling, whose husband is Eddie Vedder.
Vedder himself has been known to be the band’s drummer, though he usually dresses incognito so that no one will recognize him.
Don’t expect Pearl Jam, though. Hovercraft drafts spacey, surreal noise rock that often floats through lengthy instrumental jams.
Tickets are $6.
Local blues hounds Too Slim and the Taildraggers will release its fourth album on Halloween. To mark the occasion, the band will stage a record release party Thursday at Fort Spokane Brewery.
Titled “Swamp Opera,” the album is by far the best Too Slim and the Taildraggers offering yet.
The record release party starts at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $3.
Tonight, the Makers will debut a brand-new guitarist at its Big Dipper show. Jamie Nebel, formerly of Guitarded and the Young Brians, replaces Tim Maker, who left the band for personal reasons.
Tonight’s show also will function as a release party for the Makers’ brand new seven-inch vinyl EP called “Music To Suffer By.” (And just in time for Halloween.)
Openers include a local rockabilly band, the Let-Gos, and North Carolina punk band Trucker (said to be a cross between the Dead Boys and the Vibrators). Music starts at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $4.