A Benefit for Cancer Survivors
Featuring Bill Grisolia and the Attachments
Gee Coffee (301 E Santa Fe, Olathe KS)
Saturday, September 18, 1999

Preview by Danny Alexander

This Saturday, Gee Coffee and Wascal Wecords & Stuff will host an event not to be missed-for its cause, for its overall quality, and for the caliber of its headliner. A graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School, Long Beach musician Bill Grisolia will no doubt be inspired to have his band, the Attachments, play in his hometown. But that's only a small piece of the story. Grisolia will headline this event, titled A Benefit for Cancer Survivors, as a cancer survivor himself, having fought his own bout with the disease just two years ago.

Though this particular benefit has uniquely personal significance for Grisolia, I have known of him for the better part of a decade because of his longtime work reaching out to others. Bill Grisolia played a key role in a southern California networking organization, the Music Alliance, which inspired other musicians to follow similar models in many other cities, including Detroit and Kansas City. Grisolia has also worked as a Senior Legal Assistant for Memorial Health Services, a mini-hospital system based in southern California, and he has served on the City of Long Beach's Commission on the Homeless. He has performed many benefits in his career, particularly for health-related issues such as AIDS walk, various cancer centers and National Cancer Survivors Day.

Grisolia has opened for Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, Rick Derringer and Starship. Cashbox critic Fred Goodman has compared his music to that of Billy Joel and early Springsteen. Others have noted the Elton John influence in his songwriting. Truthfully, Bill Grisolia doesn't sound like anyone else so much as Bill Grisolia, but he is a keyboard-playing frontman, and his bold melodies and heart-on-the-sleeve songwriting can't help but lead listeners back to such classic rock influences for a comparison. From everything I've heard, you don't want to miss his moving, high-energy show-he is the house attendance holder for an unsigned band at L.A.'s House of Blues!

This night's show will be amplified by a great deal of high quality local talent. The top two Olathe Battle of the Bands Winners, Entry #5 and Hog House will open for the Attachments. The show will also feature from two-to-four local comics between sets. Proceeds will go to the Bloch Cancer Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Tickets are only $5 in advance and $7 at the door.

To learn more about Grisolia, go to www.grisolia.com; for more about the benefit, write FrankieSids@netscape.net.

--Danny Alexander