I'm still a little peeved I didn't put in the winning bids for the Stones "Ya-Ya's" box set or the Paul Westerberg gig poster in the silent auction, but everything else about Friday's sold-out Electric Fetus tornado benefit offered up a warm fuzzy feeling. And not just because tens of thousands were raised to help the 41-year-old indie record store recoup from rebuilding costs and months of lost business, while thousands more went to Haiti relief efforts.
It was super sweet, for instance, that the crowd bulged in size right away for Cloud Cult's terrifically frantic wham-bam 8 p.m. set, but then people only started to trickle out very slowly as the night spun on. It was also really sweet to witness Roma Di Luna grow from a tender acoustic act to a soulful, innovtive rock band that can command a packed First Ave, thanks in large part to Channy Moon Casselle's hair-raising singing talent. Perhaps sweetest of all was seeing Casselle's vocal sidekick, Jessi Prusha, also singing her heart out even while it looked like she was pregnant enough for her baby to want to come out at any minute (and a sweet side note, the kid's dad has been on that same stage innumerable times). And while RdL delivered their clever version of "I Will," the real Beatles sugar rush of the night came when Jeremy Messersmith strapped on a McCartney-style Hofner bass, which definitely fit the sound of his new songs (plus, he gave "Lightrail" an "Ob-La-Di-La-Da" twist).
Behind the scenes, it was sweetly symbolic up in the DJ booth as the fellas of Solid Gold set up their DJ-ing equipment while the old-school countrymen of Trailer Trash were kicking up the dance floor in front of the big stage. Clearly, different corners of the music scene turned out to support the Fetus. An exclamation point on that mix came when Nordeast rappers Unknown Prophets finished off the night in the main room with their full-on rock band, including Bill Mike as guitar slayer. And a more personal moment of sweetness came my way when Trailer Trash covered Doug Sahm's "Be Real" -- a song that usually makes me pine for the days when I lived in Austin, but on this particular night I was too proud to be a part of my hometown music scene to want to be anywhere else.
