Rock for the Gulf Coast at Koncepts

On Thursday, area hipsters converge, rocking for a cause as a trifecta of sound hits Koncepts Hookah Lounge.

The chill couch atmosphere turns into, for one night at least, the place to be for music, dancing and advocacy. It's the Rock for the Gulf Coast Concert at Koncepts, where donated proceeds go directly to the National Wildlife Federation for oil spill assistance.

It's an opportunity Koncepts' co-owner Jesse Kellogg said yes to right away. "I wanted to help out in some way or form," he said.

A $2 raffle ticket (for prizes like a $50 Speakeasy Tattoo gift certificate) and donations will bring in the cash, but organizer and student activist Alex Snow hopes the band will reel in the crowd. After all, to Snow, it's not just about an oily beach. It's a crisis of epic proportions.

"I had some friends, and we were talking," he said. "We heard about the gulf ... and it really kind of made us upset, and we wanted to do something about it."

Instead of boycotting a gas station, his group wanted to help in a more direct way, so he began researching charities.

"We found the National Wildlife Federation and their Gulf Coast Oil restoration fund," he said. "We really like them because 80 percent of all the donations goes directly to the cause."

The fundraiser, originally slated for the ill-fated ReelHouse Cinema and Draft, started to take off. While Koncepts can only hold 80 people (compared to ReelHouse's 350), organizers hope the quality will overtake the quantity.

"Me and my friends couldn't just sit by and watch this happen without doing something about it because it just seems apocryphal in so many ways," he said.

It's the Appalachian State University creative writing major's first foray into the world of benefit concerts, and he's optimistic that, if the bands don't reel in an audience, the cause will.

An information session starts at 8:30 p.m. with the bands playing at 9:30 Thursday. Entry is free, but donations are highly encouraged.

No Eyes.
The Boone-based '90s-esque grungesters may hide their eyes, but they're not hiding their hearts, at least where the Gulf Coast is concerned.

"We never thought our music would help save marine life," guitarist Andrew Manson said, but he's more than enthusiastic about giving it a go.

No Eyes serves as the opening act Thursday, reeling in their loud Nirvana-esque noise front and center.

With careful instrument work and smooth rhythms, the sound is a lot more fine-tuned than their haircuts (or lack thereof).

If their crowds are any indication (packed house last time they played the Boone Saloon), they'll clean up (no pun intended) at Koncepts.

Andrew Faucet
He's bringing southern style straight from Arkansas.

"The sound is definitely like a southern kind of finger-picking," he said, "kind of beautiful, a somewhat spooky sound."

It's swampy. It's soulful. And it's haunting Koncepts for the cause.

"Honestly, [the spill] is the only thing that's ever really happened that's made me afraid for us, I guess you could say," he said.

Last time Faucet was in town, he played a coffee shop. This time, he plans to rock the house in a town he can't wait to visit for the second time. "It's beautiful and, for some reason, the sound just kind of makes sense in that landscape," he said.

Sound of the Mountain
"We're a progressive, instrumental rock band," front man Daniel Cox said.

Together a year and a half, the Arkansas-based-group hits Boone for the first time Thursday, and it's a particularly timely cause.

"We were just down in Louisiana playing a show, and it seemed like [the spill] is affecting people pretty badly down there," he said. "We hope that we can bring some positivity to the whole situation by having a fundraiser. I think that it would be great to raise money for a cause like that. It's a lot more important than most stuff that's going on right now."

Sound of the Mountain got its name from Morgan Freeman hit The Bucket List.

"Morgan Freeman's talking to this girl in a restaurant, talking about this guy that climbed the highest mountain," he said. "That's when he heard this deafening silence ... the 'sound of the mountain.' He said it was like we heard the voice of God."

The group mixes instrumental harmonies without vocals.

"We try to make our songs very dynamic and epic to where we don't really need a vocalist," Cox said. "You can just hear it in your own head."