Weekend of local rock volume 26

Oct 04, 2009

All right, the concert didn't actually occur on a weekend, but who really likes working on Friday anyway?

After the apparent demise of Cowboyz Saloon in Ocean City, the (Save the...) Breast Fest had to reschedule and find a new venue. On Thursday night the event was held at the Purple Moose Saloon in Ocean City. Certainly no one was more pleased than event organizer and breast cancer survivor Michele Hogsett of the band Semiblind.

The brainchild of event organizer and Semiblind singer Michele Hogsett, the event attracted seven bands whose participants signed this poster. I suggested that next year she should have a second one done and auction it off to raise more money.

The (Save the...) Breast Fest was set to benefit the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, and they were ready with a number of items for sale to benefit the cause.

If you're pretty in pink, these guys would have you looking good for a long, long time. But the money raised goes to a good cause.

They also had a craftsperson there creating bracelets and lapel pins made for the event were there for the buying too.

There were a lot of people who left the event with new accessories.

All told, the proceeds for the event totaled almost $600, which is pretty respectable for a first-time effort. Much of it was raised through the raffling of chances to win some nice items and a 50/50 drawing netted over $200.

Michele Hogsett pulls off the first of many prizes several lucky people won at the Breast Fest. I had my eye on a couple of those two-night packages but alas I didn't win for my sweetie.

Passers-by on the boardwalk got the luxury of seeing the band schedule and check back for their favorites.

They actually stuck reasonably close to schedule. One thing I noticed is that the crowd peaked about 11:00 - just in time for Semiblind. But when you create the show I guess you get to pick your slot too.

So you can now see in just what order the band pictures will occur. Mighty convenient, huh?

Actually, High Maintenance was solely represented by their lead singer and the guitarist she borrowed for the evening.

I've seen this singer before but never with her band. She sang a number of cover tunes, including selections from the Beatles and Tom Petty.

I didn't take pictures of the DJs, but Skip Dixxon kept busy in more ways than filling in the time between bands. He's also the drummer for Agent 99, the second band of the evening. Hint: you'll see Skip and Kathy Denk, the guitarist stage right, again in this presentation.

Agent 99 put a harder edge on the show, playing selections from Guns 'n Roses, Billy Squier, and one of my favorite AC-DC tunes, 'Touch Too Much', among several others.

Most of the bands were female-fronted, which would be natural for such an event. The lone exception was Woodstok Nation. But Judith Carter did sing lead on the Stevie Ray Vaughn song "Pride and Joy", which was one of the few covers they did - as opposed to the other bands, they mainly did their own stuff.

To answer the question about whether they were country or rock, lead singer Mark Stewart noted ' we're what you call country rock and roll.' Cleared that right up.

Witches Brew set out to "take us on a trip...but we promise to bring you back." By launching into the Jefferson Airplane classic 'White Rabbit' they weren't kidding.

Even with the psychedelic opening, Witches Brew played a lot of hard stuff like Nirvana and their closing song 'Diamonds and Rust' made famous by Judas Priest.

Michele was the hostess with the mostest, and Semiblind attracted a couple special guests on their songs.

Kathy of Agent 99 came out to help with vocals on one of the songs Michele sang. Not that Michele needed help singing Heart, but it's nice to know you have friends.

If there's a song in Semiblind's library that Skip Dixxon - who plays in a tribute band called Rock Bottom and owns the drum set used at the show - should know the drum part to, it would be 'Cold Gin' by KISS. And that's where he came in.

Here's a shot of just the four of them jamming out as always.

After Semiblind wrapped up, Petting Hendrix came out with a similar hard-rock sound, but done with a somewhat different selection of songs. They leaned on more pop music but threw in two covers of Jimi Hendrix songs, "Fire" and "Purple Haze." It's a bit jarring when combined with songs like Nena's "99 Red Balloons" but they made it work.

Petting Hendrix bills themselves as a '80's and '90's cover band, and that's what they did for the most part with the exception of stuff by their half-namesake.

The final band of the evening was Chrome Donut, who wrapped up the show with a set based more out of the Top 40 from the 1970's and early 1980's. Some songs were done as three-part as the picture shows while a couple songs were just keyboard, drums, and vocals. It made for a more mellow wrapup to the festivities.

Chrome Donut finished the show, unfortunately to a dwindling audience. Hopefully these ladies and gentleman didn't take offense because they played a nice set.

Michele hopes to make this an annual event, and perhaps it will do better if they can find a venue to play on their original intended date leading into Delmarva Bike Week. Given the growing number of female-fronted bands gaining prominence this could be a much larger show for the second annual effort next year. I look forward to it!

Weekend of local rock volume 26

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