Providence-based music writer Rob Duguay spends a lot of his time interviewing bands and hyping up new ones here in the digital pages of Vanyaland. Tonight through Sunday, he’s using his 29th birthday as an excuse to teaming up with some of his favorites for a four-night, 16-band-and-artist fundraiser for the The J. Arthur Trudeau Center, a decades-old Rhode Island-based facility that specializes in autism care.
“I’ve always wanted to do something on my birthday to give back,” Duguay tells us. “April is National Autism Awareness Month and the Trudeau Center has been a mainstay in care and services since the ’60s for people who have autism and other developmental disorders”.
Sponsored by Duguay’s booking and promotions company Top 5 Fiend, Revival Brewing, and Pizza J, the series kicks off tonight at the Parlour in Providence with Silverteeth, Cat Has Claws, Wild Sun (whose new EP we premiered yesterday on Vanyaland), and Seven Hats Parade. The fundraiser hits AS220 on Friday night, News Cafe in Pawtucket on Saturday, and wraps Sunday at Firehouse 13. Full lineups and ticket info are below.
Duguay says all proceeds from the event will go to the Trudeau Center, and the response from the local music scene has been very positive. “There were even a few artists who couldn’t play,” he says, “but have already made donations”.