Some regional musicians have agreed to come together to provide at least some financial support for the families who lost loved ones in the devastating house fire which occurred May 14 in Hastings, Cambria County.
\nA summer benefit concert dubbed \u201cHelping Hands for Hastings\u201d will be held this Sunday, starting at 2 p.m., and many regional bands are teaming up to help lessen the financial burden on those who now must deal not only with the loss of those closest to them, but also with funeral arrangements.
\nKenny Murdick, lead guitarist for regional rock band Bad Daze, and originator of the idea for the show, told The Daily News of the close ties he has to the horrible situation.
\n\u201cSome of these people are family members or extended family of two of my co-workers,\u201d he said. \u201cI was contacted about the fire early Saturday (May 14) as I was preparing to head up to Hastings for our Saturday night show at Davey\u2019s Lounge (Hastings).
\n\u201cThis house was right across the street from the club and it was hard to believe, hard to comprehend. When I got together with the rest of the guys (in the band) that night, we decided the right thing to do would be to try and raise some money for those families right then and there.\u201d
\nBy \u201cpassing the hat,\u201d a little over $120 was collected from patrons and employees at the tavern. Very quickly, talk of a bigger and planned-out event began.
\n\u201cWhile what we collected may not have been a huge amount of money, every little bit helps,\u201d Murdick said. \u201cBut we got to talking with Davey (Gunther, owner of both Davey\u2019s Lounge and the home that was destroyed) and it became clear that we needed to do more.\u201d
\nGunther, too, expressed his desire to lend a hand.
\n\u201cThis is just an unimaginable situation,\u201d he said. \u201cNo amount of money will make the pain go away, but if we can do something, anything for these people, we need to.\u201d
\nSince the tragic weekend, plans for the show, slated to take place in the large parking lot at Davey\u2019s Lounge, took off, and promotional support has come from several media outlets in the region, including The Daily News, Huntingdon; The Daily Herald, Tyrone; WBXQ-FM Radio, Altoona, Cresson; Forever Broadcasting, Hollidaysburg; and Pennsylvania Musician Magazine. Area radio personality and \u201clocal music guru\u201d Jim Price has agreed to emcee the event, which will feature nine regional bands, spanning a variety of music genres, including modern rock, blues, classic rock, metal, 80s \u201cnew wave\u201d and dance\/pop.
\nParticipating acts include: Falling Higher (acoustic music), Billy and the Inmates (classic rock), Flight 19 (rock, dance), Felix and the Hurricanes (blues), Razen Kane (rock), Atomic Blonde (80s retro), Bad Daze (modern rock, 80s rock), Gin and Juice (jam band) and Roadkill (original rock).
\nThe show is being staged outside to accommodate an \u201call-ages\u201d crowd for most of the day. A $10 donation per person is being requested, but additional contributions will be welcomed and appreciated.
\nGunther has coordinated concessions so folks can enjoy \u201cpicnic foods\u201d throughout the day. All food items are being donated by area food suppliers so 100 percent of food sales will also go to the families.
\nGunther said his heart is close to this cause for many reasons. He and one of his bartenders were two of the first people to respond the night of the tragedy. The pair did what they could to save the people inside until local rescuers arrived.
\n\u201cI personally thank everyone who opened up their hearts to help,\u201d Gunther noted. \u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling to see that there are some people in this world that care about others, even total strangers.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re lucky that two of those people survived that fire. We try to count our blessings every day. We ask that you keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.\u201d
\nFor more information on the show, visit the following web sites.
\n– – – – –
\nOn The Net:
\nRock Page: www.rockpage.net
\nBad Daze: www.baddazerocks.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some regional musicians have agreed to come together to provide at least some financial support for the families who lost loved ones in the devastating house fire which occurred May 14 in Hastings, Cambria County. A summer benefit concert dubbed \u201cHelping Hands for Hastings\u201d will be held this Sunday, starting at 2 p.m., and many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}