Acoustic Coffee House event to raise funds for charity

Sitting in a coffee house, sipping a cup of coffee and listening to acoustic music is a tried and true combination for relaxation. Tonight, those three elements will converge on a grand scale in a benefit concert known as Acoustic Coffee House.

The event is co-sponsored by the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and the Office of Residential Life. All proceeds go to Push America, Pi Kappa Phi’s national charity organization. Admission is free, but students are encouraged to donate $5 at the door and to donate during the concert as well, as part of a “People’s Choice” award.

The groups competing at the event will be performing acoustic music. Some entries will be bands, such as The Psykes. Others will be solo acts, such as Gabrielle Wortman and Yuki Akaishi.

Push America was founded by Pi Kappa Phi fraternity in 1977. Its mission is to develop members who serve in the goals of aiding people with serious disabilities. The organization focuses on service leadership, construction and cycling events across the country as ways of raising funds.

Anh Nguyen, a fourth-year physics student and chair of the event, said that he believes this event is set apart from other benefit concerts because of the volunteer work required of its performers.

While many benefit concerts unite musicians in their efforts to raise money for a worthy cause, few require the participating artists to engage in community service in order to perform at the event. That emphasis on service by all acts involved sets Acoustic Coffee House apart from other concerts in the same vein.

Every group celebrated the spirit of Acoustic Coffee House by performing a community service event over the last few weeks. Naya Zamaana and The Psykes participated in a Special Olympics event at UCLA over the weekend, while others visited hospital patients earlier in the month. Luz Kumpel, a fourth-year psychobiology student, ORL member and one of the event coordinators in charge of logistics and publicity, said that there will be a video highlighting the musicians’ community service experiences.

According to Nguyen, Acoustic Coffee House is both a philanthropic event and a competition. There will be 11 acoustic music acts performing at the concert, as well as three other guest performers.

Matt Most and the Nobodies, a band made up of all Pi Kappa Phi members, will open the show. Also performing will be last year’s winner, Cameron Hovsepian and special guest Lady Danville, who is taking time off from its tour with Dashboard Confessional to perform at the event. Lady Danville is an indie pop band made up of UCLA and Awaken A Cappella alumni Michael Garner, Matt Frankel and Dan Chang. Garner and Chang performed at Spring Sing in 2006 under the name Mikey G and Dan from Danville. The trio will perform two sets at tonight’s event.

“This is one of the last chances to see them before they get big,” Nguyen said.

This is the second year that Acoustic Coffee House will take place. Pi Kappa Phi had previously organized a large-scale “Battle of the Bands” before switching to the Acoustic Coffee House last year to reduce the cost of the event itself. The event was so successful that they chose to repeat it this year.

Nguyen said that the prize for the act with the highest musical rating of the night will win a free day of recording at 4th Street Recording Studio in Santa Monica. The “People’s Choice” award will go to the band whose fans in attendance donate the most money to Push America on their behalf.

Skyler Gray, a musician who will be playing acoustic guitar and singing at the concert, said that the experience is extremely rewarding for the musicians as well as being productive because benefit concerts are a great way to promote community service and involvement.

“As a musician, it’s really neat that we can do what we love and still support things that are affecting our society,” Gray said.