Rock In Chicago

This year’s CancerSmash was intended to be a blowout, I wanted to go big, as the cliche goes, and  move away from just doing a simple bar fundraiser and make it more of an event. This year was also an experiment. Over the last 20-plus years as a musician Ive heard many a complaint from friends and family in the ‘burbs. City shows are too far.  Parking. The shows are so late. We can’t go out because the kids. We need food. I don’t like _____ genre of music. I decided to partner with dear friend and fellow local music supporter Gail Peters from Galeforce Productions to put together something more along the lines of a festival, err to go big, so to speak, and also to try to solve all of these problems. Gail books at Cairo Alehouse in West Chicago. They have great food, the venue is fairly easy to get to, and they could accommodate multiple performance areas so we could book a variety of styles of music. The idea was to have something for everyone.

Photos by Gail Peters

We booked 12 bands ranging from indie rock, to punk, to doom metal, to industrial, and different generations of musicians. I wanted to play a show with some of my oldest friends who I haven’t seen in years, due to life happening, kids, careers, a number of barriers. We wanted to really have something that an all-ages show should have, and thats something for kids interact with while the parents are enjoying the music. My friend’s wife volunteered to do face-painting and henna tattoos. My wife and daughter chipped in to help create an area for kids activities. We also wanted to keep the show earlier, scheduling the last band to go on at 11pm.  We also wanted to showcase some of the area’s best visual art talent with live art and a gallery showcase.

So we pulled it off, there were a few glitches with scheduling, we didn’t quite get the turnout we were expecting, but the show was a success for me. 

Check out the highlghts from some of the bands performances

How did we do it? 

The bands and artists all came together for it, the spirit of the show was there through the music and art. And when you have 12 bands and their fans hanging out for over 8 hours of music, it’s a great experience. When the bands go beyond their genres to check out and support the other bands on the bill, its building a community. Everyone involved gave something of value -  be it their time. material donations, or money. Most of those that were involved, I chatted with at the show, mentioned to me at one point during the evening, that they knew someone who was going through treatment, or had lost to cancer. It’s the big C, and it has touched all of us.

Photos by Christian Contreras

So what good did all this do? Its a fundraising benefit, right?

This year, the CancerSmash campaign raised over $1000 for the American Cancer Society. We raised $400 the night of the show between the door money and drawing ticket purchases. The rest came in directly from online donations, mostly from my musician friends that couldn’t make the show. The scene supported itself in this show.

So who were these people that did all this supporting and donating?

Gail Peters, Galeforce Productions Andrew Massih and the Massih Family, Cairo Alehouse Geoff Teach of Teach's Criterion of Metal Morgan and Luco from The Metal Experience Kimmi Rudolph of the Metal Experience Ron Lindeman from Chaos Punk Radio Jake and Conor from Brown Bear Records Jacek Leja from The Doc Metal Show Flabby Hoffman, The Flabby Hoffman Radio Extravagonzo Vanessa Davis Ruble Annmarie and Teresa Vecchione Rob Such of Mortal Music Tracy Shen of Stone Cove Jewelry Nero Rothschild and the Art Cult Collective The Instrument Exchange of Batavia Christian Contreras, Quentin Dover, Aerie Dover, Jenna Scifres, Petra Sith, Melissa DeGott, Jeff Iverson, Art Rento, Brendan English, Mark Burd, Ben Bowman, Chris Shen, Ian and Tara Palmer, Brad Motl, Andrew Tate, Sandi Wimmer, Deborah Noncz, The Maul family, the Behary family, the Svach family.

The aforementioned bands that all played the show and you, if you showed up, and enjoyed the music!

I couldn’t have made such a great show without ALL of the above. Thank you all!