Another successful Backstage supported fundraiser! (Boston, MA)
Greetings from Boston! Wow, what a fantastic night we had tonight. The manager at the Sheraton came up to me after the event and said, “if you guys want to do this again next year, DEFINITELY do it here. We loved having you, the whole crowd was wonderful, tipped the bartenders really well, the music was awesome, and we couldn’t have asked for a better event to host.” I have to agree with her – everyone who came out deserves a huge kudos. The folks at the Sheraton who helped set up the room, serve the drinks, set up the stage, table linens, catering, etc. were absolutely great, too.
I learned something else tonight, too – that two Irish boys named McCann from Boston can sing soul like nobody’s business. Holy crap. We play with bands all the time, all over the country, and rarely do we have as much fun and good spirit as we did tonight with these guys. Watching their set was really, really enjoyable – and then for the last song, they brought all of us SoundRabbits up on stage to join them for a jam of “Boogie On Reggae Woman” by Stevie Wonder. Jay and Beers jumped on percussion, Anton on electric guitar, and I shared keyboard duties with Pat, the lead singer of Brothers McCann, though I’m not much of a soloist, so I left most of it to him… but man, standing next to him and hearing him sing Stevie – wow, was that impressive. It takes some serious you-know-whats for a couple of white Irish boys to cover a Stevie Wonder song (particularly the singing part), but they pulled it off, and big time. We all chatted after the show about setting up some tours together on the East Coast and in Colorado if they make it out there. Really complementary music and we all got along great. Thanks to all of them for joining us for this cause.
We raised another $300 through the raffle and silent auction, bringing our total LLS donation to $2,300. It’s pretty amazing to see all of this coming to fruition. Some of you longtime Backstage Community members may recall that the LLS was one of the very first charities that we ever helped through the Backstage – way back in December of 2007. I think we donated around $500 to them from a New Year’s Eve event or something. Now, two years later, we’re able to donate over $2,000 from a show out-of-market (outside of Colorado). Someday I hope we’re cutting a check for $10,000 to groups like them… that’s the whole idea. Thanks to all of you (REALLY – THANK YOU!) for playing a huge part in all of this.
Time to hit the rack… Anton, Fred, and I are getting up early to head over and register for the convention, set up our booth, etc. More updates from the Hynes Convention Center later!