
I attended the benefit for Alejandro Escovedo at Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington, VA yesterday afternoon… a wonderful event for a good cause, and great fun hanging out at Iota in the afternoon. Alejandro, after a show in Phoenix on April 26, 2003, collapsed, and was hospitalized due to complications from Hepatitis C. A trust, the Alejandro Fund was established to handle donations on his behalf, and venues around the country have hosted benefit concerts.
A really great line-up of performers was on hand, including Bill Kirchen, Last Train Home, Karl Straub, Jumpin’ Jupiter, Little Pink, Brandon Butler of Canyon, Lee Wilhoit, June Star, Scott McKnight & Naughty Pine and a reunion of the Graverobbers. I walked in just after (former band mate) Lee Wilhoit performed, apparently with a stellar combo which included Rob LeBourdais on drums, Phoebus Spiliotopoulos, Tim Bracken… damn! Would have loved to have seen that. Apparently they opened with a T. Rex cover…
Last Train Home’s Eric Brace was emcee for the afternoon, seemed like he was having a blast. I saw excellent three and four song sets by Karl Straub, Little Pink, and Naughty Pine. Eric invited me up to play two songs (and lent me his beautiful Gibson acoustic)… I did Tim Finn’s Good Together and Love Comes Down from This Time… and thank you Tom Kane for the guitar pick…
More great sets by Last Train Home, Bill Kirchen, the Graverobbers… and some one-of-a-kind jam sessions with some unlikely stage mates… I think I saw Eric at one point involved in a raucous Iggy Pop cover. A special day.