What happens when a Polymer Chemist Lab Technician with a passion for music and a desire to live out his faith in a way that leaves the world a little better than he found it begins eating Track Town Pizza [Eugene, Oregon]? It’s a cliche formula right?! Of course the answer would be Redemption Rocks! Concerts, duh. Having interviewed some impressive start up venues and bands based in the Eugene (Oregon) area, it is a pleasure to introduce a grassroots organization fueled by a sincere passion for utilizing music as a vehicle for positive expression and community impact. Our thanks to David, the organizer of Redemption Rocks! Concerts, for completing this interview for us.
HC Is there any significance or story behind your name?
RR!C I’d screwed up and hurt some friend’s feelings. It was really my fault. I was thinking about the Christian concept of being redeemed. I did what I could and had to do in order to do right by my friends and also owned my fault. I also prayed for help in being a better human being. I thought “what rocks harder then the opportunity to turn things around and accept forgiveness.” Hence, the name. I bet Kanye would really like to know that his awards outburst could be forgiven and that he could make good on it right now. 
So, no really deep meaning, but a pleasant principle. HC What are the origins of Redemption Rocks! Concerts?
RR!C I was in a band that played around Eugene. We did pretty well, had some fun and made some money. At one point, we played the County Fair and had to finish our set on a smaller stage 15 minutes before the Doobie Brothers started on the main stage, so I was able to tell people that we (kinda) opened for the Doobie Brothers and they were afraid to compete with us. It was fun and I’d picked up some sound, promotion and booking skills while managing the band. I’m of the Christian faith, but I honestly find church often doesn’t do a lot for me. Music does. (So do good books and dialogues with all sorts of people.) I really thought that a better way to express and our beliefs and start thoughtful, respectful dialogues was through concerts that were open to all sorts of people and covered a variety of excellent and hopefully thought provoking music. So, I asked to borrow the gym at a local Christian summer camp and set up a show. People were really excited and told me how much that meant to them and the interesting thoughts that had developed out of it. So, I was hooked. Sometimes organizing shows can be really frustrating, but every so often I hear from someone who got something that they really needed from a show, even if it was just “man that guitar was so excellent, I needed to hear that today.” That causes me to start planning the next one.
HC How long has RR!C been doing it’s thing?
RR!C We’ve been doing it for just under six years now.
HC You say, “We help promote any Christian concert in the Willamette Valley and help artists, venues, sound people, churches, groups and just people hook up with each other.” What bands, venues and churches have you worked with that have shared a special kinship with your vision for Redemption Rocks! Concerts?
RR!C When I think of artists, sound people and venues that we’ve worked with a lot and who really share some of our spirit and goals a few that come to mind are:
Scott VenDenElzen of Audio Idea sound. He’s got a day job, a family, amazing skills on the sound board and tens of thousands of dollars of equipment that he’s put together mostly to provide concerts for homeless folks while the Free People give them food and such. He really thinks through the sound, is incredibly easy going and is really behind the artists. Whenever he’s available, he’s one of my favorite sound guys to work with.
Free Reign is a venue/ concert series that has been located in a few different churches. The leader, Moses Bergstrom used to play lead guitar in a blues band I was in. Free Reign does these tiny little free concerts with free snacks (Currently in Junction City). Moses and Free Reign are all about two things. Giving musicians in any style a chance to hone their skills and creating a space where people can check out their spiritual beliefs. Moses has also been at it about six years now and even though he’s worked in funky spaces, has given artists with a variety of skill levels a chance and has had some very small audiences, he keeps plugging away at it.
Nik Fury, one of our local artists (hip hop mixed with punk, pop and worship) is really sympatico with what we’re up to. His lyrics are funny, intelligent, questioning and real. He’s got a song called “Simple Life” where he essentially says, “I’ve got a few fans that get what I’m saying, my girl loves me, I get to be creative and I’m making a bit more than minimum wage, I don’t need to drive a lexus or be a star.” That fits really well with what we’re doing. I’d love to do bigger and bigger and better shows and not have to worry about the day job, but we don’t really need that. Nik also whips out some amazing concert flyers and video images for us.
Jeff Weinkauff and his team at First Baptist (Where I am involved.) and the Lowell MacGregor group (A promotion company out of Portland.) have opened some tough doors for us.
Recently we got to do a hip hop show for the HIV Alliance. A really cool thing that happened was that I realized how much their director Jim Robinson got what we were doing. Of course I knew that he would appreciate the money to help them take care of peeps, but he also made it clear that even if the show didn’t bring in a dime, it was just great to have such a wide variety of people coming together to respectfully to share creativity and spirituality, have a good time and take care of each other.
Not everybody understands or is down with everything we are doing and a few people have literally tried to stop us, but there are a bunch of concert volunteers, musicians, churches, venues, fans and others who are with us. I wish I could give a shout out to all of them.
HC It’s always a good thing when we can reach beyond the norms and not only create through music but contribute. You’ve expressed, “We especially like to be involved in concerts that are either free to the public or are benefits for worthy causes, such as the HIV Alliance, Food for Lane County, etc. We do this because we love music and because we believe that we are put on this earth to care for people and to share what we believe.” How have you been able to team with others to facilitate supporting some of the causes that you listed?
RR!C We’ve done concerts for the HIV Alliance and Food for Lane County. Those were frankly some of the coolest things we’ve been able to do. The “Will Play for Food” concert series for Food for Lane County has meant a lot to me and has spawned some new artists and some ongoing efforts to take care of each other. We do about one of those a year. Right now we’ve got a show coming up that’s admission by a can of food. I’m looking to put together a “Heavier than Thou” show of hard core, gothic and heavier artists that would be admission by a can of food and we just nailed down a benefit with Paul Wright and RootDown for Hosea Youth Services. They help out homeless youth. I also really like to do free to the public shows. I honestly hope that we can inspire an ongoing revolution producing a lot of artists and a lot of people who make serving others a lifestyle.
By the way, another Redemption Rocks! goal is start a concert series that puts artists with simialar styles, but different faith or philosophies in the same concert, for instance Matisyahu (the Hasidic Jewish reggae/dub dude) in concert with RootDown and an African Muslim reggae artist I’ve heard. The idea would be not just to share how I see the world, but to encourage respect and understanding for each other.
HC Are you then serving as a voice to help promote activities/concerts that are in the works or you on the ground promoting and organizing shows?
RR!C I (and the rest of the Redemption Rocks! crew) do both. We actually organize, produce and promote several shows a year ourselves from the ground up. We’ve been averaging about one a month. But, we know that we can’t create a scene or do everything we’d like to do on our own. So, we have a standing offer, that anyone in the area who is doing a show featuring artists who are about Christian spirituality and would like help with promotion, finding artists, finding a gig/ venue/ sound man or whatever we can help with, can hit us up. We can’t always help everyone, but we try, particularly if the music really grabs us or they want to help with worthy causes. At the least we can always add their flyers to our promotion. Of course, we ask that they help spread the word about our shows too and send us any useful information they discover as well.
We can’t organize as many shows as we’d like or even help every artist that we want to as much as we’d like to. So, I also try to help artists learn to promote and book themselves. In November, I’m going to do another free all comers class on how to get the word out about what you are up to. All of your readers are welcome!
HC RR!C is the brainchild of David Evartsii, who is David?
RR!C Let’s see who am I. Well, by day I’m a polymer chemistry lab tech. I’m a musician and a person who loves to draw and paint every day. I’m a music lover and football fan with a sick and weird sense of humor. I’m a pretty good friend and family member. I’m someone who would like to become all of the things that I am created with potential to be. I’m someone who wants to leave the world a little better than I found it. I want to inject some musical soul into dead and vacant places. Essentially, I’m a fellow homo sapien with all of the propensity for good and evil that entails.
HC What are some of your early influences that got you into music?
RR!C I remember when I first heard U2’s “War” and the Talking Head’s “Speaking in Tongues.” They weren’t main stream, but they were odd, quirky and real. I remember thinking that these weren’t going to change the world, but that I was really glad they existed and maybe they could start us exploring and even talking about how things could be. And, I liked them. I’ve always thought that anytime people could find something that would inspire them to get off the couch and start exploring that’s good.
HC Who were some of the influences that helped you launch RRC?
RR!C I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my wife, Barb, she is always encouraging people (including me) to dive in and try things that they think someone should do. Please pardon the overt spirituality here, but my faith asks that people dig in and find the good things that they can do, so that’s really becoming more of my world view, making sure that I’m routinely creating and sharing and finding out who’s around me and what’s great about them. So, Redemption Rocks! is really an expression of that as well. Also, I’ve got to give cred to generations of amazing artists and do gooders that make me want to keep the ball rolling.
HC Where can those interested best connect with you to find out about events and/or getting involved?
RR!C Peeps can e-mail me at davidevartsii@yahoo.com or find me on facebook or myspace. We’ve got a Redemption Rocks! group on facebook from which I send out concert announcements and such, it’s at I also send out a concert calendar e-mail once a month. The address to get on that list is redeption.rocks@gmail.com HC What do you enjoy most about the local music scene? Who have been some of the funnest bands and venues to play with?
RR!C I love Cozmic Pizza, not the pizza, the venue. Eugene Celebration can be more fun than a person can take. The crew at McDonald Theater are almost as cool as the Redemption Rocks! crew. Hawk Nelson are some seriously fun loving guys, but giving it up for the locals, Sons of Vindication and Returning Grace have been the most fun to hang with.
HC Pizza Hut or Dominos? Favorite place to eat in Eugene?
RR!C Track Town is the Eugene Pizza! But, the best road food is still anything Greek.
HC Any funny and/or scary stories from recent shows?
RR!C Hummm! Does the security volunteer who started stage diving count? We had a Veggie Tales Live concert last year. The place was filled with excited toddlers. When the bubbles started pouring down, there was a fearsome stage rush. An old concert hand I worked with, who’s worked everything from presidential campaign events to POD and Anthrax concerts went down under the toddler bubble stage rush. I saw his hand reaching up from the miniature people mob, before he disappeared. He later said, that was the scariest stage rush that had ever hit him. For More Info on Redemption Rocks! refer to their article “What Redemption Rocks! Concerts are for” on their Myspace Blog.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
WHO: The David Crowder Band w/ SeaBird & Danyew
When: Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM PDT
Where: 1st Baptist Church of Eugene
3550 Fox Meadow Rd. - Eugene, OR 97405
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