On
March 18th, starting at 8pm at Asylum,
a club in Portland, Maine, Concerts4Charity
(www.concerts4charity.org)
will stage a second benefit (the other
in Lansing
MI on March 20th) for One World
Beat 2005. This concert will feature
five hard-rock and metal bands, among
them Hour-Past, Thrust 13, Loki, Dead
Season, Emptyhead, and Rubikon.
Hour-Past, five-person band featuring
some of the most colorful names in
the business--Spaz, Pulse, Church,
Voice--combines rock-hard rhythms
with insights worthy a poet: "a
world without song is one without
heart, a voice is an instrument that
speaks from the soul, (and) a soul
never needs tuning". They have
appeared in many live shows, on a
compilation album called "Rat-Pak
Unleashed", and will soon finish
their debut CD. They also produce
a popular newsletter called "The
Comic".
Thrust 13 expects to release their
debut CD, "The Beat Down Chronicles"
sometime this spring, and they have
also been featured on the "Rat-Pak
Unleashed" compilation, produced
by one of New England's largest indie
labels, Rat Pak Records (www.ratpakrecords.com).
Rubikon, a four-member band with Boston
roots and a loyal fanbase throughout
New England and nationwide, has two
EPs ("Radio Shack" and "Awaken"),
and in the fall of 2004 released their
first full-length recording, "The
Hollow Men". With richly melodic
vocal harmonies set against walls
of metallic noise and spacey atmospherics,
Rubikon "enriches your soul,
captures your heart, and stirs your
inhibitions", wrote one critic.
Emptyhead has also left critics and
fans raving, with a sound that is
reminiscent of Pearl Jam, Stone Temple
Pilots, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Tool,
but also very much their own. The
five-member band is no stranger to
charity benefits, having played as
part of a line-up to support the families
of loved ones killed in a club fire
in neighboring Rhode Island which
took 100 lives, to benefit a fire
department and a junior high-school
class in Maine, for other Concerts4Charity
events, and to keep an art venue operational.
Their CD, "Who's Talking...Who's
Listening", has been called "heavy
rock 'n' roll with a brain."
Dead
Season--2004 Battle of the Bands winner
in a contest sponsored by Maine's
major hard-rock station, WTOS--includes
two brothers in a four-member group
which is currently shooting videos
and appearing at such venues as the
Hard Rock Cafe in Boston, where they
played a major-label showcase. By
day, brothers Ian and Matt Truman
work as a mechanical engineer and
a teacher, but by night they play
the hard-metal music they love. Their
new CD, "Down Again", reflects
their view that "everyone has
their struggles and their dark side,
but all you need is a way to release
that energy...the dead season is life,
(from which) we can see the sky, find
the light, and forge strength in self."
In
Norse mythology, Loki is a god of
mischief and trickery. In the chronicles
of music, Loki is a rock band with
a frenzied following, fiery frets,
and humanitarian feelings, who mix
Concerts4Charity events with scorching
sets that include anthems like "Who
Said What", "Reunion",
"Born", "Submission",
and "Downpour". One reviewer
compared them to a "rock god
playing to their congregation",
and said it's clear they are one of
Maine's new music leaders.
See
the event details...
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