March 31 & April 7 Anniversary Concerts Benefit Climate Activist Collective
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is celebrating its March 31, sixth anniversary as a regional, climate activist collective confronting the root causes and perpetrators of climate change through direct actions and locally organized solutions. We invite and welcome every one of all ages to share this milestone at two Sixth Annual Celebrations of Wild Idaho Rising Tide. These benefit concerts provided by five bands and solo musicians accompany potluck dinner and desert in Moscow, snacks in Sandpoint, beer and wine for purchase, dozens of raffle items donated by community members and businesses, and a background slide show of WIRT accomplishments. Come and enjoy our yearly fund and action raising parties offering radical revelry for participants supporting relentless, volunteer WIRT activism among and in solidarity with frontline communities of fossil fuel resistance and an international, grassroots network of activists.
WIRT’s amazing members, friends, and allies eagerly anticipate lively musical and social gatherings between 7 pm and 12 midnight on Friday, March 31, in the 1912 Center Great Room at 412 East Third Street in Moscow, Idaho, and on Friday, April 7, in the Little Panida Theater, 300 North First Avenue (across the street from the WIRT office) in Sandpoint, Idaho. Suggested, admission donations of $5 or more at the doors to these otherwise free, open, public events assist the dedicated work of WIRT and allies to banish new and expanded fossil fuel infrastructure from the Northwest. Please join dirty energy resisters for a well-deserved, reinvigorating, wild evening full of shared camaraderie, spirited conversation, exuberant dancing, good food and drink, and live music of multiple genres, played by these talented, visiting, and resident songwriters and performers from Moscow, Sandpoint, and Spokane:
Moscow, March 31
* Fiddlin’ Big Al
KRFP Radio Free Moscow DJ and board member and core WIRT and Standing Rock activist, Fiddlin’ Big Al Chidester of Moscow opens with ragtime, honky-tonk piano, fiddle, and guitar, singing old-timey, country blues and original, socio-political satire songs. Al started the practice of playing traditional, phase-shifted, electric viola, adding to his multi-instrumental, experimental Americana repertoire on mandolin, banjo, dobro, and lap steel guitar. He writes humorous, topical songs about peace, freedom, and political hypocrisy, some recorded on his 2004 album Where Were You the Night New Orleans Drowned? and Other Songs for Our Time. Besides performing at Northwest barter fairs and hosting a long-running, jam session at the Moscow Moose Lodge, Fiddlin’ Big Al broadcasts several, weekly, KRFP, music shows, giving airplay to an eclectic mix of genre-bending music, recorded performances from regional venues, and occasional, live, studio sessions.
* Ben Walden
A prolific, Moscow musician who has performed since childhood, winning a Prairie Home Companion appearance and a Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival award, songwriter, singer, and guitar and harmonica player Ben Walden released three full-length albums in 2016, a solo endeavor and two collaborated projects, each recorded with different bands and distinct sounds. Ben graduated from Moscow High School, and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Inspired by international and psychedelic music, his acoustic, solitary performances blend these influences through original, complex, folk and bluegrass compositions that ideally aspire to bring new ideas to the cutting edge of music and art.
* Food Water Shelter
With a motto of “No Fears, Just Beers,” recently formed Moscow band Food Water Shelter features Hannah Smith on electric guitar and vocals, and Kyle DeHart on drums and voice, offering ZZ Top-style country, rock and roll, and heavy metal tunes.
Food Water Shelter facebook page
Sandpoint, April 7
* The Beat Diggers
Spanning music from the 1970s until today, Sandpoint favorites The Beat Diggers share cool tunes, ear candy harmonies, and epic rock and roll. This band of innovators includes lead guitarist and vocalist Benny Baker, drummer Ali Maverick Thomas, Christine Kester, Mike (Big Dog) Poulin, Rob Smith, and whoever may stoke the stage to instigate true musical treats.
* Armed and Dangerous
A Spokane, three-piece, party band of regular guys who play plenty of cover and original, classic rock and outlaw country for any age, Armed and Dangerous performs fun, danceable music with a light show. Since meeting during open-jam nights in 2010, lead singer and guitarist Frank Clark, bassist Ted Taylor, and drummer Rick Newton have enjoyed and taken pride in together providing to audiences old-school, “roadhouse-style raunch and roll” at taverns, bars, house parties, and occasional festivals. The band’s first album in 2011, Party Naked, comprises 15 songs of original material. “Armed with great songs and dangerously entertaining,” their high energy gigs draw crowds all over Washington and Idaho, satisfying fans and enticing guests out of their seats to their feet, by rocking their versions of beloved, remembered tunes of the past.
Armed and Dangerous ReverbNation page
WIRT extends our hearty thanks to the remarkable musicians, core WIRT activists, and regional businesses who have supplied and co-coordinated the various entertainment, preparation, and publicity aspects of this upcoming opportunity for you to physically and fiscally contribute toward the passionate, climate justice movement in Idaho and the Northwest. Through this convergence, courageous WIRT challengers of the government, corporate, and industrial sources of climate chaos hope to further attract and involve cross-cultural and youth diversity in activism.
For further information and to respond, to participate as an event volunteer, and/or to contribute raffle items and gift certificates for WIRT’s sixth anniversary party, please visit the WIRT website and facebook pages, contact us via phone, email, or facebook message, and print and post the attached, color Sixth Annual Celebration of WIRT flyers. If you cannot attend but would like to donate toward ongoing, WIRT work to halt coal and oil trains in the Idaho panhandle, tar sands mining and refining megaloads in the northern Rockies, and oil and gas extraction, production, and transportation in the Treasure Valley, please pitch in through the WIRT online donation site. We hope to see you and your friends and family at these celebrations!
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 