Austin rock show to benefit Japan Tsunami survivors

It’s time to thrash at the Paramount. It’s time to rip and shred and bang your head like there’s no tomorrow. It’s time to rock, time to feel the blistering bass riffs standing next to the amps, time to hear the screech of heavy metal and hard rock … for charity.

The American Red Cross Benefit Concert, put together by Underhill Promotions and Booking, will take place Saturday, July 16. It’s a concert months in the making by one of Austin’s former residents, and it’s going for a good cause.

“I just felt that it was one of those things that I needed to do,” said Brian Underhill, head of Underhill Promotions.

Underhill grew up volunteering for the local Red Cross and knows what service to others is worth. When the Japan Tsunami struck in early March, Underhill felt the need to put on a show to benefit Japanese survivors and those displaced from their homes.

Yet while he put together the show, more disasters struck. The Joplin, Mo. tornado wiped out much of the Missouri town on May 22, killing more than 150 and injuring more than 500. With fires in New Mexico and more tornado troubles in the Midwest (including a tornado that damaged part of a north Minneapolis neighborhood), Underhill felt it was time to do more.

“Just seeing the devastation of what these natural disasters can do first hand … (they) affected a lot of people, so I just felt that now that I’m doing my business, I felt like I could come back to town and do a big charitable event,” he said.

To that end, Underhill put together a list of up-and-coming bands that are ready to make it big in the rock world. Bands like Bad City, the Chicago band which caught Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkin’s eye. Bad City’s going to take time off from touring with KISS to play the Austin show.

“It was pretty much the luck of the draw for me,” said Underhill, who said he’d scheduled with Bad City before they were added to the KISS tour.

Throw The Fight is another band Underhill feels lucky to have playing for him. The Minneapolis-based group has garnered attention and accolades as an upcoming band, recently playing with bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Papa Roach, Sevendust and going on Vans Warped Tour.

“They’re a bigger band,” Underhill said. They just recorded their album in LA, with John Feldman, the Goldfinger frontman and talented producer/mixer who has worked with bands like The Used, Escape the Fate and Atreyu (not to mention Good Charlotte, Panic! at the Disco and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus).

Underhill’s worked with Throw The Fight before and jumped at the chance to book them after a fellow promoter and friend asked for the band to be on the show.

That’s what local band Heaven’s Gate wanted to do as well. Based out of Faribault, Heaven’s Gate came together in 2005 and has hit the ground running ever since.

“They’ve got that nice rock sound,” Underhill said. “It’s not too hard; it’s pretty well consistent with who they are.”

Speaking of nice rock, Senseless Beauty’s got that covered. The Christian, melodic hardcore band from Clear Lake, Iowa, recently signed with Inner Light Agency, the same group Throw The Fight is with. Underhill saw that as an opportunity to bring Senseless Beauty into the show.

“I thought it would be the best fit for them,” he said.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, with tickets at $10. Tickets can be purchased at the Paramount, Hy-Vee, Piggy Blue’s, Steve’s Pizza and Ivy’s Ink among other local businesses. What’s more, ticketholders can register for several passes when they sign up for tickets. Those passes include a Roady for a Day pass, which means someone can help set up the stage, unpack sound equipment and hang with the bands before showtime. There’s also a VIP pass, which lets holders sit in on the local radio interviews scheduled for the bands this week. The big pass is the Underhill Promotions and Booking Lifetime Pass, which gets the holder into every show Underhill puts on in Austin in the future.

“Any time I’m doing a show in Austin, that would grant them access,” he said.

The Austin Jaycees will put on a beer garden for the show’s older attendants and $2 from every ticket will go towards the Mower County chapter of the American Red Cross. Although the show is one night, Underhill wants to make this event an annual charity.

“I’d like to help out and to give back to the community in some way,” he said.