The Dolls Site

Modified Dolls to modify hall with 11-act benefit Friday

 

Friday’s benefit concert hosted by the Modified Dolls at the Eagles Hall is about as much music as you can get for $10.

It starts at 5 p.m. and ends at midnight, and in between no fewer than 11 acts are scheduled to play. That’s less than a buck for each performance. And all of that money goes to Trailseekers of Yakima, a YMCA-affiliated group that helps at-risk youth and their families.

What else could you want? Perhaps a group of fun-loving, brassy, sassy women who are proud of their tattoos and piercings? Well, that’s the Dolls themselves.

“We’re just out to prove we’re not all a bunch of hooligans,” says Lexi O’Neal of Yakima, the head Washington state doll and one of the concert’s main organizers.

The Modified Dolls, a group founded by Kennewick resident Holly Roettger to help charity while fighting stereotypes about women with body modifications, have already done toy drives and other fundraisers. Now, given their rock ‘n’ roll spirit, a concert is the next logical step.

“We had a bake sale in December, and it benefited the YWCA,” O’Neal says. “Their coordinator actually had the idea to do a benefit concert.”

From there it took only about a month to book all 11 acts, six of which fall under the broad category “rock” and six of which fall under the similarly broad category “hip-hop.” Underneath the “rock” heading alone are such disparate acts as R&B-tinged singer-songwriter Jose Raul and metal acts Deny Your Deceiver and Chokeout.

“It’s a pretty decent variety,” O’Neal says. “We have acoustic, soft rock. And then we have Deny Your Deceiver.”

Deny Your Deceiver, as local metalheads know, has elements of hardcore in its sound but is a pretty straightforward metal band.

“It’s very, very loud,” says guitarist E.J. Ramos. “It’s aggressive. We don’t really have any clear vocals. We like to keep a high energy while we’re playing. If you like the heavier stuff, you’ll probably enjoy it.”

Chokeout, likewise, has a good reputation around the Yakima Valley for playing fast, hard and loud. They’ve been together since 2006 and have played hundreds of shows in that time.

“It’s the raw energy,” says guitarist Brandon Buckley. “It’s a way to let it all out and have a good time.”

Both bands are mainstays on the Yakima scene, and both jumped at the chance to be part of something as big as this 11-act benefit. None of the bands is getting paid to play. But they’re looking forward to sharing the stage with so many other acts — and such diverse acts.

“Music in Yakima has finally started to grow again,” says Ramos. “In the last year and a half, two years, there’s a lot of new bands.”

Buckley says he’s seen that, too. The scene has ebbed and flowed over Chokeout’s six-year career. But there are more bands out there now, and Friday’s show provides a nice snapshot of that, he says. The mix of rock and hip-hop works better than you might expect, too, he says. For one thing, it allows bands to play to people who otherwise might never see them, he says. Chokeout has played alongside rappers before and found itself broadly accepted by their fans.

“It’s kind of cool to mix it up,” Buckley says. “It’s kind of crazy. (Our audience) is a variety; it’s a mix.”

Breaking down barriers between fans of music genres, between different kinds of bands, between all sorts of people, is a big part of the Modified Dolls ethos, so that fits with this show, O’Neal says. The basement of the Eagles Hall has a capacity of 300.

“We’re hoping to pack it,” she says. “We’ve been passing out fliers, there’s a lot of word of mouth, and all of the bands have their own fans.”

 

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

 

If you go

WHAT: Benefit concert hosted by Modified Dolls.

ROCK LINEUP: Chokeout, Deny Your Deceiver, Jose Raul, Bad Habit, Chaos Theory, Liquor Cabinet.

HIP-HOP LINEUP: M Status and the M.P. Nation, Miss LaLa, OM3NZ, Miguel Ortiz, Yaktown Militia.

WHEN: 5 p.m. to midnight Friday.

WHERE: Eagles Hall basement, 307 W. Chestnut Ave., Yakima.

ADMISSION: $10.

Source: Modified Dolls to modify hall with 11-act benefit Friday

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