Join us for the first annual BC Bats Benefit Concert in Vancouver to raise money for and awareness of BC’s bat population. The concert will be held on Sunday, from 2pm to 6pm, at LanaLou’s Rock’n’Roll Eatery (362 Powell), and will involve headliners NO FUN, Victoria-based band Hüskee Düde (Nick Venditti of Gnash Rambler, Little Guitar Army, and others); Sister DJ and the Hired Hand, fronted by Geelia (Jill) Mandrake of Sister DJ’s Radio Band; and Rowan Lipkovits (Creaking Planks/ Accordion Noir).
This event is organized by Allan MacInnis, who approached the BC Community Bat Program with the idea of having a benefit concert about a year ago. MacInnis has a long, fond history with bats having grown up in Maple Ridge where bats flew around in the evenings. When he lived in Japan for three years, he also saw lots of bats that flew near him as he rode his bike between the rice paddies and the bamboo groves on his evening commute.
Flash forward to 2017, when MacInnis discovered he had squamous cell cancer on his tongue. “My girl Erika Lax and I were going to get married, and we had to move the date up, because we wanted to be married before I went in for surgery, which was going to remove a part of my tongue. I wanted to give her a memorable wedding gift, and I needed a best man for our wedding. So I asked my friend David M., of the so-called ‘Beatles of Surrey’, NO FUN, if he’d be my best man and write music for and perform ‘If I Was a Bat’ at my wedding. He did! His music was different from the peppy bluegrass tune I’d initially imagined but it worked perfectly and has become definitive.”
“If I Was a Bat” by NO FUN can be heard here: https://atomicwerewolf.bandcamp.com/track/if-i-was-a-bat
Come spend an afternoon with bat loving bands and learn a few bat facts as well, with BC Community Bat Program Metro-Vancouver coordinator Brynne Graham. Admission is $20 at the door. The venue is all-ages and kids are welcome, BUT NOTE that the event is designed with a mature, sophisticated audience (albeit ones who enjoy, at times, immature and/or frivolous songs) and there may be profanity, eccentricity, and “mature themes” during the course of the night. After covering costs and a small honorarium to performers, proceeds will be donated to the Community Bat Programs of BC.