On Wednesday night at the Ardmore Music Hall, a benefit took place in support of the American Cancer Society. The core band for the Rock the Pink show was moe.’s Al Schnier (guitar) and Vinnie Amico (drums), the Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein (bass) and Aron Magner (keys), along with Goose drummer Cotter Ellis and String Cheese Incident percussionist Jason Hann. They were joined over the course of the evening by Allie Kral, Andy Frasco, Kanika Moore and Nicki Bluhm. All told, more than $40,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer awareness and research campaign.
Al Schnier told Relix prior to the event, “Any song that has pink in the title, references pink, or the entire Pink Floyd catalog is kind of an easy place to go. There’s also Music from Big Pink, the artist Pink. It goes on and on…This year it's been interesting because we have Nicki Bluhm, Kanika Moore and Allie Kral as featured guests. So I encouraged them to think about songs that speak to women or empowerment. Something else that’s kind of cool is we're going to do some original songs from Nicki, Kanika and Frasco. So it won’t entirely be the repertoire that I would lean into or that some of us would be familiar with. The songs that that everyone has brought to me are amazing and just perfect for the night.”
All of these elements were in play during the first set which opened with the Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1.” Schnier sang that tune before Kral and Bluhm stepped up for “Long Black Veil.” Then Bluhm offered the title track to her 2018 album To Rise You Gotta Fall. Next, Moore led the band though Doom Flamingo’s “Strangest Places” and The Band’s “The Weight” (from Big Pink). Kral then sang “Pink” from Barbie: The Album, followed by Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” Finally, Frasco stepped out for his own “Dancing Around My Grave.”
The second set began with a pair of Pink Floyd songs, with Schnier on vocals for “Fearless.” Then Moore took command on “Have A Cigar,” and remained for Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.” Frasco returned at this point for his own “Try Not To Die” and John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses.” Then Bluhm came back out for her latest single, Ann Peebles’ “How Strong Is A Woman.” Following this, Kral and Moore led the ensemble through two more Floyd songs: “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” which was followed by a closing take on the Grateful Dead’s “Touch Of Grey” with Moore singing lead.
The encores were Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop.” Additional events and opportunities to donate can be found here.
Here are some photos of the evening, by Paul Citone:
