The Crescent City Throwdown (benefit displaced musicians) October 2, 2005

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On Sunday, Oct. 2nd, Little Five Points is paying tribute to New Orleans with a benefit entitled Crescent City Throwdown. Proceeds of this daylong, neighborhood-wide event will go directly to The Preservation Hall ?Do You Know What it Means? Foundation and Tipitina?s Artist Relief Foundation. Both foundations have set up special chapters specifically designed to assist New Orleans-based musicians/music industry workers in the wake of Katrina.

Starting at 1 p.m., bands will perform in Findley Plaza and in the Junkman?s Daughter parking lot. Street Performers will line Euclid Avenue. Little Five Points merchants will donate portions of that day's sales to the cause. The BrewHouse will broadcast the New Orleans Saints game. Bands including Heaven Davis and Her Aggravatin? Poppas, R&rB Legend Tommy Brown, King Johnson and The League of Decency will perform at the Five Spot all afternoon. We'll have New Orleans cooking demonstrations on the plaza.

The New Orleans-based Stooges Brass Band (which has temporarily relocated to Atlanta) will march through the streets at 6 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., Variety Playhouse will host a benefit concert starring Cajun band, Beausoleil, New Orleans? favorite SubDudes, Atlanta's own Kingsized with The Dames Aflame Dancers and more. Proceeds from a silent auction, Cajun eats and t-shirts designed by R.Land will further the cause.

'Members of Atlanta's music industry want to reach out directly to our peers in the New Orleans area. "The Preservation Hall Foundation and the Tipitina's Foundation will benefit those performers and performance-related professionals who have lost their homes and livelihoods", said Mike Geier, lead singer of Kingsized. "We feel that it's grassroots organizations like these which will ensure the people get what they need immediately to rebuild their lives and preserve New Orleans music and the scene therein."