Organizers at Stonegate Pizza will host a big rock show this weekend in support of a good cause. Elton Juan, Howard Comfort & Friends, Creedence Rising and Offtrack are among the acts booked to play the club on Oct. 4, with proceeds benefiting Portland's Shriners Hospital for Children.
Shriners Hospitals specialize in treating children with orthopedic conditions, spinal injuries, cleft palates and other debilitating issues. It's a cause close to Stonegate owner Jeff Call. His daughter, Lauren, 18, received treatment there for a bone-warping condition called fibrocartilaginous dysplasia.
“When she was a little girl, the bottom part of her little leg was bowed,” Call recalled. At Shriners, he said she underwent a series of operations that required breaking and resetting her leg over the course of several years.
“That's a scary thing, some pretty major surgeries,” he said, alluding to the supportive environment at the hospital. “But the Shriners made it fun for us. … They had art, so we'd go in and have a little room, and every night they'd have art projects. Then they had a game room. They'd come through and give you stuffed animals. Sometimes (kids would) be in surgery, so they couldn't leave their bed for a day or so. So they'd come and make sure they had things to do at their bedside, activities. They just made it special. We looked forward to it.
“This is kind of our chance to give something back to them. So that's what it's all about. It's about doing something for the Shriners Hospital, for those children, so they can keep doing what they do; and they don't charge a dime to the families.”
The fundraiser will actually begin with Lauren's Ride, a motorcycle rally with sign-up at 9:30 a.m. at Destination Harley-Davidson, 2302 Pacific Highway E. Entry is $20 per bike, $10 per passenger, and cyclists will depart at 11 a.m., eventually arriving at the Stonegate, which is located at 5419 South Tacoma Way.
Music at the Stonegate will begin with Elton Juan – a Latin Elton John tribute act - at 3 p.m., followed by Howard Comfort at 4:30, Creedence Rising at 8 and Offtrack at 10. There will be a silent auction, with items donated by local businesses, in the upstairs lounge.
In unrelated Stonegate news, the venue has become the new home for Maltoberfest 9. The annual event – a parody of Oktoberfest that celebrates cheap malt liquor – was originally booked several blocks down the road, at Bob's Java Jive, but will now kick off at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18 at the new location.
“We had six solid years at the Jive, and there's no petty drama in the world that would have broken that bond,” event founder Craig Egan posted on Facebook earlier this week. “The reason for the move is that the Jive looked at many factors and decided there was just too much risk for their position. Not only do we understand, but we're as shocked as anyone that it took this long.”
The style dujour at Maltoberfest, for the uninitiated, is a quirky mash-up of traditional German and old-school hip-hop, lederhosen meets rope chains and gangsta grills. Three Ninjas & the Weird Old Tricks, The Breakfast Cowboy, 508 Disturbance, Brainstorm and DJ Melodica are scheduled to perform this year.