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November 28, 2008
Get tickets for "battle"
River Rock show will help Louis Brier and RJDS.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
On Dec. 10, River Rock Show Theatre will host Battle of the Bands. A joint fundraiser for the Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation and Richmond Jewish Day School, the event will be emceed by local-born comedian Peggy Harowitz, now performing at the Toronto Comedy Festival.
"We are not really going to make this a contest about the proficiency of playing," event chair Arnold Shuchat told the Independent. "It won't be like TV. It's not my style to create losers next to winners. This is simply a benefit concert for a cause greater than that of our own egos. The Louis Brier wins, RJDS wins and the audience wins because they are going to get some cool prizes for dancing their feet off."
But Shuchat isn't doing this just for the fun of it. "I am personally involved with RJDS, having put three children through its doors and I live in Richmond.... Over the years, we have received substantial support from members of the Vancouver community. One of the best things one can do for someone to show one's appreciation is to do something special for someone they love," he explained. "It is for this reason I chose the Louis Brier, in part, and also because I know from experience that this kind of organization would make the concept work, and secondly ... it is a way, in my mind, to pay tribute to the terrific work my mother did her whole life, working as a volunteer to comfort the aged and to provide an enhanced quality of life in the care environment at Maimonides, Montreal's equivalent of the Louis Brier."
Shuchat not only directed the organization of the concert, but he'll be taking to the stage as well, on drums and vocals with the band Open Sundays.
"Everything is timing and had to come together," said Shuchat. "Lining up the guys to play, finding a friend's warehouse (thank you Bong Wear) in which to leave the equipment all made moving forward simpler. After all, who wants to lug drums around every week?
"Also, at RJDS, I have a strong board of directors and a couple of good co-presidents in Jeff Moss and Allan Seltzer, who got out of the way and just let it happen without making things too complicated. Many great ideas die on the table and all it took for this one was for Allan and I to go skiing one day during the week to enable me to finally pick up the phone ... and get this thing started."
Getting it started is one thing, but it took months for Open Sundays members to agree on which music to play, said Shuchat. He said the problem was solved by the addition of Jon Gale, from Gale Force Blues band, to the group.
"Jon was sweet enough to agree to play with us and not bring in his own band only because he wanted to be part of something constructive for the Louis Brier, where his mother resides," said Shuchat. "Jon and I have a pretty identical set of musical tastes and he liked everything I wanted to play. Most of the others deferred to his experience and we started to move forward."
The first practice for Open Sundays is at the Pumphouse Pub on Nov. 30, "to see how we sound in public under a little bit of heat," said Shuchat.
"For the other bands, I simply called up the guys I knew who could pull this off," he said. "There is a big range of talent and I tried to keep the players Jewish because I wanted there to be buy-in for the cause, although some are not."
The other bands are Footloose (Nathan Fox, Alex Jackson, Joe Markovitch, Gary Feldman and Jeff Shoub), Purple Heys (Allan Landa, Alan Margulius, Arnie Winrob and Jeff Bell), Atomic Robot Man (Billy Lachman, Dwayne Milstein and Frank Dashevsky) and the Howard Mickelson Blues Experience (Howard Mickelson, Les Toth, Chris Ainscough and Jon Tweedale). Open Sundays is Shuchat, Gale, Bram Lerner, Ian Cohen and David Newman.
Shuchat said, "we are about to introduce, in a major way, the concept of fun into fundraising. I will bet you that, next year, we will be sold out two months before the date of the event.... I will have a giant jar in a prominent place in the venue, where I will solicit names of potential musicians who might be interested in playing with a group for next year's show. Who knows, we might have to go to a two-night performance to accommodate all of the closeted musicians who are secretly yearning to do their thing and go on tour."
Tickets for Battle of the Bands are $75 and include a drink (and are partially tax deductible). The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Call 604-261-5550 or e-mail [email protected].
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