A local bar sends help via music

FAU students are going beyond campus to help Haiti.

Former FAU student John Paul “JP” Pitts, the lead singer and guitarist of local band Surfer Blood, helped raise $2,500 at Propaganda, a bar in Lake Worth. The bar had a benefit concert on Jan. 18, where 100 percent of the door fee and 10 percent of the bar sales went to the organization Doctors Without Borders.

“We were happy to do it,” Pitts said after the show, in which his band played. “Steev [the promoter of Propaganda and founder of The Honeycomb.com] called us, and we said, ‘Of course. We’d love to.’”

Local band Surfer Blood helped raise $2,500 for Doctors Without Borders at Propaganda in Lake Worth. Photo by Stephanie Colaianni

Doctors Without Borders is made up of more than 27,000 people worldwide who help and attend to those in need. According to their Web site, www.doctorswithoutborders.org, they had people setting up areas to help out the needy in Haiti just hours after the earthquake hit.

Surfer Blood was accompanied by other local acts, such as John Ralston, Sweet Bronco and Kill Now?! John Ralston managed to fit eight people on the already tiny stage, including several guitarists, a violinist and a xylophone. His ensemble is self-proclaimed as “Dutch pop/surf/soul” music but can be compared easily to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Sweet Bronco’s laid-back melodies gathered more people to the front of the stage. On the other end of the spectrum, Kill Now?! put on a loud show fit more for headbanging than headbobbing.

“I think it’s bad-ass,” said Tim Grontham, a graphic design major at Palm Beach State College. “A good cause and good music helped them kill two birds with
one stone.”

Susan Sherouse played the violin during John Ralston’s set at the Haiti benefit show. Photo by Stephanie Colaianni

For more information on how to donate to Doctors Without Borders, check out their Web site: www.doctorswithoutborders.org.