Station Nightclub Anniversary Concert

“Last night I drove down to Providence Rhode Island to set up a table for the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors at a benefit concert for the Station Family Fund. This is a charity organized to support the injured survivors of the fire and the family members of the victims and survivors. More than 100 people died in the fire 5 years ago, more than 65 kids lost at least one parent. Eventually these folks will probably get good settlements in law suits, but now there are people who can't afford basics.

The concert was in a big arena (where they have hockey and basketball games) and was filmed for VH1 and CMT (Country Music Television).

The feeling in Rhode Island is that because the people at the nightclub were mostly hard living blue collar folk out to see a heavy metal hair band, that they have had a hard time raising money. Tesla was the one act that really helped with benefit concerts in raising money. The performers seemed to agree - the attitude was the folks were injured were fans. They support the the musicians and the musicians earn a living from them - now is time to pay it back.

I got to see most of the concert. The organizers gave me a comp ticket, but I made a donation. It was loads better than I expected and the seats were great. I didn't see it all because I hung out at the table when it looked like people might be around.

One highlight was when Dee Snyder brought all the musicians out on the stage and also called on Joe a- a survivor of the Station fire who I know a little - and an incredibly strong and brave guy (with almost all his facial features gone) to join them on the stage. A lot of the musicians stayed around after the concert to hang out with the survivors and family members of victims.

Dee Snyder from Twisted Sister MC'd

The Country Acts were:

Whisky Falls: Good mainline country music with solid guitars and good harmonies.

An ad hoc quartet of:
Gretchen Wilson - Awesome presence and voice. She played Redneck Woman, California Girls and blew people away with an awesome cover of Heart's "Straight on for you."
John Rich - of Big and Rich. Played guitar and was MC while he was on stage with Gretchen and Dirks Bentley. He was a very talented man. He did a great rowdy version of "Save a horse, ride a cowboy."
Dierks Bentley - Also a talented man.

Other performers of note that I saw:

Twisted Sister: The original five, in good form but never a favorite of mine.
Tesla: Impressive guitar work. Probably the most beloved by the audience.
Winger: Impressive sonic assault.
Aaron Lewis of Staind - A couple great solo songs.
CTA - Including folks from Chicago.
Stryper - good set, joined by Tom Scholz from Boston

Others I missed some or all of or don't have much to say about but were on the list:

Randy Owen from Alabama
Eric Martin from Mr. Big
Facing Forward
Brandon Reid
Gary Pihl
Kelly Pickler
Carmine Apice (from Vanilla Fudge)
Kevin Max
last edited: 2/26/08 9:08:15 AM”

“Dear god, Kip Winger is still out there performing?

He was a hottie back in the day. ;)”

“I'm surprised Great White wasn't there.
last edited: 2/26/08 9:17:32 AM”

“Vanilla Fudge??

Woo Hoo!!”

“Great White did donate the proceeds of their '04 and '05 tour to the Station Family Fund. Still, I don't know how welcome they would be. It might be a bit too weird for people to handle seeing them again.”

“Here's a link to an article about the event:

http://www.projo.com/music/content/STATIONREV_02-26-08_2P958J3_v7.37fca3a.html”

“As long as you don't block exits, obstruct egress, and make the place a death trap it would be okay......anyone wants I can give you the site where you can see the computer simulation of what happened that night.”

“Please do XL.”

“Another article:

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view.bg?articleid=1075992&srvc=rss”