Thursday, July 11, 2013

Hollapenos' 10th anniversary honors old friend

It’s hard to forget a band name like the Hollapenos. Not because it’s the world’s best band name (that’s a whole other blog post), but because it’s funny and an odd spelling. It just sounds like a high school band - and it was. 

Charlotte native and New York-based mastering engineer Dan Millice mentioned his old Myers Park high school band when I interviewed him in February about his Grammy nomination for his work on Trey Songz “Heart Attack.” So when the name popped up on the Visulite’s calendar as an opening act for fellow locals Bubonik Funk and Richmond’s the Shack Band, I wondered if it could possibly be the same band.

Yes, the stars have aligned and the original Hollapenos lineup will regroup for a special show to honor an old friend Friday, July 12, at Visulite. The show marks the defunct band’s tenth anniversary. The group's members include Millice, who is in town celebrating the new album release by fellow Myers Park grads Junior Astronomers (which he mastered), and Andrew Gillespie, who now plays with the Shack Band.

Funds from the reunion show will be donated to the Zach Ramsey Children’s Cancer Fund. Ramsey was a classmate and friend of the band during its Myers Park days. Before his death three months shy of his eighteenth birthday, he started the Zach Ramsey Children’s Cancer Fund with a few thousand dollars from his savings and asked that friends and family continue to raise money to fight pediatric cancer in his name. 

If you attended Myers Park High a decade or so ago, this week sounds like a partial high school reunion with Junior Astronomers’ listening party and acoustic set at NoDa Brewery tonight, the reunion show featuring both the Hollapenos and the Shack Band, and JA's cd release show Saturday. Junior Astronomers’ singer Terrence Richard will also join the Hollapenos on stage for a song Friday. 



Tickets for Friday’s concert are $8 to $10. Additional donations will also be accepted. Doors at 9 p.m.