Quad City Live Music New Year

For my last 2012 blog post, I'm not going to give you a review of where I have been. It's time to talk about upcoming New Year's Eve parties in the QCA. I'm not going to say this is the most comprehensive list of upcoming parties, but I would like to think I've managed to come up with a good start anyway.

Pre-holiday Live Music

Friday at the RME Performance Hall

Local band Breakup Art Rocked the RME Performance Hall Stage

 

Due to the Redstone Room holiday party schedule, visiting bands What Made Milwaukee Famous and The Stone Foxes were scheduled in the RME Performance Hall. Local band Breakup Art was added later as an opening act.  Breakup Art plays mostly original music with a punk influence. Front man and guitarist Donnie Bobb tells me they are looking forward to getting back to writing new music and doing some recording soon.  New music from local bands is a great thing, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for their next recording…and their next live show as well!

I Heard This Before

You never know where I might turn up...

There are a few bands on my “to see” list that you might not expect to find there. Friday night presented an opportunity to see one of them – as well as a bonus band. I arrived at RIBCO about halfway through A Hill to Die Upon’s set. This was the “bonus” band, a band I have never seen and quite honestly, didn’t even know existed until I saw them billed as part of Friday’s four-band show.

A Recipe For Live Music

Friday – Lee Blackmon With a Dash of Harris Collection

 

Roger Carlson sings along with Lee Blackmon

If you were looking for me Friday night, you would have found me at Bleyart’s entertaining a rowdy crowd with Lee Blackmon. During a break, I made a mad dash down to the Mound Street Landing to catch a bit of the Harris Collection’s Toys for Tots Benefit. The band sounded great, and there were Marines in dress uniforms everywhere. Tom Zick was running sound, and during a Harris break he stopped by Bleyarts. Also in attendance at Bleyarts were Roger Carlson and Bill Spain who joined Lee for a few songs.

Sweet Blues and Christmas Cheese?

I started my night Friday at The Muddy Waters and enjoyed some Candy… Yes, the Candymakers were making sweet sounds at Muddy’s Friday. We were treated to some new original works, including a Christmas song,which, according to Bret Dale, was loaded with cheese…

Thankful For Music!

I have so many reasons to be thankful. I have my family, my friends, a new job, my health… and I have music.  This past weekend I mixed things up – and enjoyed some of my friends right along with their music.

Help Portrait 2012 - Quad Cities

On December 1st I will be once again taking part in a Help-Portrait event in the Quad-Cities. Connection Church is one of the sponsors of this event.  Note: The QC Help-Portrait event is being held on December 1^st, but the international event date is December 8^th. Not every group schedules on the main date.

If you’re wondering just exactly what IS Help Portrait – you can find out a whole lot about it HERE.

Meanwhile – last year our group of volunteers helped a whole lot of families (some of whom had never had a family portrait).  The event took the better part of a Saturday (and a little bit of Friday evening for set up work), and we saw so many smiling faces!

If you know of someone who could use a family portrait, or maybe a portrait of their children, who couldn’t otherwise afford it, please get the information about this event to them. Appointments are already being taken, and the spaces are filling up fast. We’ll have 3 professional portrait photographers hopping for several hours.

The expectation is that we’ll be not only printing a photo for the families to take with them, but burning a CD with photos on it for them as well. Last year, we printed the photos and delivered them after the event.

I expect my role to be printing photos and burning CDs. We’ll have volunteers helping do hair and makeup for those that want it, other people will be escorting families so they don’t have to worry about what they are supposed to do next. There will be activities for the children while they wait their turn, and snacks and beverages as well.

Here’s the page for the Quad-Cities Help Portrait group.  We’re also taking donations to help defray the costs of printing the photos.  

This is the time of year to give. The Help-Portrait volunteers are giving portraits. You don’t have to be a portrait photographer to take part. There are so many other things that go into putting on an event of this magnitude. Find your local Help-Portrait group and offer your services. Or… find ANY non-profit and offer your services. There are so many ways to give that only require your time and talent and don’t require a lot of money. Pick one…. and GIVE this Christmas!