Lambda Chi Alpha will host a concert at Downtown Brewing Company this Saturday featuring San Diego-based reggae rock group One Drop and Cal Poly’s Killa Gorilla. The event will benefit the Spencer Wood Memorial Scholarship Foundation and honor the life of Spencer Wood, a Cal Poly student and Lambda Chi Alpha member, who died in the summer of 2006.
After his death, friends and family wanted to remember him in a way that celebrated his life. A lover of music and the arts, Wood was a frequent concert-goer, musician and writer. This will be the third year the benefit concert has taken place.
The foundation was established by Wood’s father, Rich Wood, whowill award three scholarships: one to a member of Lambda Chi Alpha and two to exceptional history graduate students who have completed their master’s degrees. All sales from the show help fund the scholarships.
Wood’s close friend and alumni Sameer Pangrekar, who came up for the idea of the concert, said it was an appropriate way to remember Wood.
“He loved music. He and a lot of Lambda Chi guys would go to concerts all the time,” Pangrekar said.
Music was a common topic of conversation for Wood; alumnas and close friend Sarah Leilani Arceo first met Wood because of an argument over Led Zeppelin, and the two soon became inseparable. As a fellow concert-goer, she recalls how much live music meant to him.
“It didn’t matter who was playing. He just loved being around music,” Arceo said. “Concerts and music are something that represents Spencer. To be able to go to a concert and think of him is just really important.”
Finding the headliner for this year’s show was not too tough a task. Korie Newman, the booking and venue coordinator for Downtown Brew, knew that Spencer was a fan of reggae bands such as Slightly Stoopid and Pepper. Working with this year’s coordinators — Cal Poly alumni Mark Hudson and graphic communication senior Bryan Jorgenson — the team was able to choose One Drop as the main act.
“I worked with One Drop at the West Beach Music Festival last year, and I know the audience really enjoyed their show, and backstage, the guys were a pleasure to work with, a very nice and hardworking band in the business,” Newman said.
Since jumping into the music scene in 2006, One Drop has become a nationally touring band and has released an EP and full-length album, “Mission Blvd.” Pulling influences from The Police and Steel Pulse, the band creates a unity of smooth melodies and reggae-rock. Lead guitarist Bart Neglia is excited to get the audience off their feet and onto the dance floor.
“We want them to share the melody and have a common bond with each other,” Neglia said.
Neglia said their music is easily relatable because of their lyrics that touch on social hardships and relationships among other day-to-day subjects.
“We got into the music business to help people out. It can always kind of sooth the hurt and hardships that people go through,” Neglia said.
Also playing will be Killa Gorilla, an alternative rock band. Since meeting in the Sierra Madre dorms in 2007 and forming in 2008, the four-piece group has been slowly growing, playing shows and fundraisers such as Relay for Life. Bass player and co-lead singer Brett Pirtle, a business junior, said he is honored to be playing at the benefit show.
“It’s pretty exciting that they trust us and chose us for this,” Pirtle said. “It does feel good for it to be meaningful rather than just for our own enjoyment.”
Every year during the show, the recipient of the Spencer Wood Lambda Chi Alpha scholarship is announced. The scholarship is awarded to an anonymously nominated member of the fraternity who lives his life by their gentleman’s code of conduct, which is based on humbleness, honesty, kindness and selflessness. Spencer’s family, close friends and selected members of the fraternity are on the board that decides on the winner.
“What’s really wonderful about this process is that this fraternity not only honors Spencer, but honors each other. Teaching these guys how to be true men — that’s not taught very many places today,” Richard Wood said.
Hudson and Jorgenson said their work in organizing will help the benefit show succeed in future years.
“It’s something we care about. Whatever efforts we can put into it now will hopefully rub off on the other guys in the house and they’ll want to continue the concert and share in everything that Spencer meant to us,” Jorgenson said.
Hudson said he is excited to gather the community together for simply a great night out.
“Good music, good people and a good cause. That’s what it’s gonna be,” Hudson said.
The all-ages show starts at 7:30 p.m. with opening act Purple Melon. Pre-sale tickets are on sale for $10 at Boo Boo Records or ticketweb.com. Tickets can also be purchased for $12 at the door.