Koka Booth Gearing Up for Rock Hall Benefit Sept. 19-20

Posted on September 5, 2008
Filed Under Arts & Entertainment, Cary |

The visitRaleigh.com Benefit Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (“Rock Hall”) and the John Entwistle Foundation has morphed into a two-day classic rock festival that will now open the evening of September 19 at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary and will conclude the next night as was originally planned. The decision to add a second day was made by Rick French, Benefit Concert Chairman and a National Trustee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

The show on September 19 will kick-off at 6:45 p.m. with the visitRaleigh.com national band search winner opening the festival. Details on the contest will be announced this week. Following that performance, the White Sox All-Star Band, made up of artists currently or formerly with Journey, Yes and several other well-known bands, will come together to stage what is sure to be a much talked about and memorable ensemble performance. Closing the evening will be 2004 Rock Hall inductee Dave Mason, co-founder of the legendary band Traffic. Mason, who over his brilliant career has played and recorded with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Fleetwood Mac – a band he officially joined and toured with in the mid-1990s – also achieved considerable success as a solo artist with the hit songs “We Just Disagree” and “Save Me,” a duet with Michael Jackson. His 1968 Traffic hit “Feelin’ Alright” has been covered by dozens of artists over the years.

On Saturday, September 20, Grand Society will open the Emerging Artists showcase at 1:00 p.m. They will be followed by North Carolina’s own Parmalee and breakout Louisiana hard rockers Supagroup. Then Raleigh’s own The Connells will take the stage, followed by another legendary N.C. band – Arrogance – that was co-founded by well-known R.E.M. co-producer Don Dixon.

As announced earlier this week, the classic rock band Jefferson Starship, featuring original Jefferson Airplane founders Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, with a special guest appearance by Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten, will open the headliner portion of the show.

Following Jefferson Starship to the stage will be Dennis DeYoung, a founding member of the band Styx, performing the Music of Styx. DeYoung, a keyboardist extraordinaire and the lead vocalist on Styx hits such as “Come Sail Away,” “Mr. Roboto,” “The Best of Times,” “Lady,” and many, many others, will play in the Raleigh-area for the first time since 1996 when he was last here with the band he co-founded in 1962 and played with through 1999, before embarking on his solo career.

Following DeYoung, members of the former John Entwistle Band will take the stage accompanied by former Deep Purple and Rainbow lead vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, Blue Oyster Cult lead singer and guitarist Buck Dharma and former original Grand Funk Railroad lead singer Mark Farner, performing the greatest hits of those particular bands. Closing that part of the show will be a show stopping performance by another Rock Hall inductee who has agreed to sit in for John Entwistle himself on bass guitar and perform a greatest hits set with members of John’s former band. Finally, a number of the day’s headlining performers and other special guests are expected on stage for a tribute to Entwistle and the music of The Who.

Anyone holding a ticket to the September 20 show will gain admittance to the September 19 opening night at no additional charge by showing his or her Saturday ticket at the front gate that evening. For more details concert patrons can visit boothamphitheatre.com. All seating on September 19 will be festival lawn only (no VIP or reserved seating will be set up that evening). For those not attending the September 20 show, tickets to the September 19 only show may be purchased at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre box office or via Ticketmaster for $35 beginning July 19 at 10:00 a.m.

“We decided to add the September 19 show as a nice surprise for ticket holders because we didn’t want to turn away some of the amazing talent that wanted to play the show. The Rock Hall and John Entwistle have a lot of friends so turning this into a two-day festival wasn’t a hard thing to do once we solved the logistical challenges,” said French.

The visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit concert is presented by the Town of Cary and sponsored by SunTrust Bank, American Airlines and Black Diamond Capital Group. Proceeds from the concert will benefit both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s educational outreach and the John Entwistle Foundation’s program of providing musical instruments and music lessons to disadvantaged youths through the public library systems in communities across the country.