Pulse gives back

Times Reporter   

 

Pulse fans rejoice any of you who have been missing them since last Canada Day, now is your chance to see them again. On March 7 beginning at 8 p.m. the band will be performing their first, and hopefully annual, Pulse Gives Back benefit concert. 

The band had been talking about starting a benefit concert for a few years but hadn’t really gotten the idea off the ground. This year the perfect opportunity arose when the guys found out their friend and fan Kevin Mertz has been invited to represent Canada at the 2013 ITU World Sprint Triathlon Championships in London, England.

“It was an easy excuse to do this, we’ve been talking about doing a benefit show like this and just should have gotten rolling on it sooner and then finally this comes up. Kevin and Jen have to raise quite a bit of money to go to London,” said guitarist Paul Sonsteby.

“We play a lot of songs he likes, he’s probably one of the guys we know likes a lot of our music and their family is such a big part of our community, coaching the swimming at the pool.”

Originally the band had considered the idea of renting the Civic Centre but would have had to pay out for different expenses and costs such as liquor, servers, food and the rental which would take away from the intention of raising what they can for Mertz. 

The Station was suggested to the men as an option. They had thought it would be difficult to get into the Station to play but were happily surprised to find out that Peter Klironomos, who co-owns the business, was more than happy to pair up with them.

“Not every band plays the Station there’s only a few bands a year that go there and so for them to say yeah (was) great,” said lead singer Mike Smith. 

Klironomos said the plan is to donate a portion of the sales to the guys, as well as pay them their rate for coming in, which the band will also be donating to Mertz. 

“A lot of times when a band or whoever is doing a charity thing they go okay we’ll donate 25 per cent of our (profits) but we just said all of it. We’re not in this to make money,” said Sonsteby.  

The guys would like to see at least $1,000 raised for Mertz, an estimate Sontesby is hoping is conservative.  

“Kevin’s favourite band is the Tragically Hip and we have about (four or five songs) that we can do, one of the things (we want) is if we pull out a Hip song we want people for that three minutes or whatever to pony up and buy that drink, buy that wing, throw some money in. So he’s (Smith) peppered them out throughout the show so it’s kind of one of the highlights,” said Sonsteby. 

Another idea is having a collection jar for people to drop a donation into. 

“Paul had a great idea, we’ll have a drum, one of the kit drums and use that…instead of a bucket, anybody can get a bucket,” said Smith. 

“We really hope it does well because A: we want to help Kevin out, we really do and B because hopefully then we can do this every year and it’s as easy as calling Peter up and saying you ready for another one. We would like them to look at it is a positive thing as well,” said Sonsteby.

Whatever they fundraise for will always be local but it depends on who needs help that year, or what causes are prevalent in the community 

“We’ve always taken a lot of hokey pride in how we’re a band from the town that loves our town and wants to be cheerleaders for events. We’re a Strathmore band and we want to be able to give back to Strathmore thus the title.”