Proceeds from “Winston Calling: A Rock and Comedy Benefit Concert for Baby Winston Bertrand” go towards Winston’s Village, an organization which has been set up to help the family of Winston Bertrand.
Eight-and-a-half month old Winston was born with two rare complex malformations called Lymphatic and Venous Malformations. The Winston’s Village website explains that Lymphatic “deals with a lack of fitness of the lymphatic system and chronic pooling of lymph fluid, creating large cysts in the face and neck. [Venous Malformations] concerns the improper formation of veins.” Because of Winston’s special needs, he requires 16 hours daily of in-home medical care with his mother and father handling the remaining eight hours of the day. All babies need constant supervision and care but Winston needs extra care including someone to change his trach tube and feed him through the tubing device located in his stomach.
The benefit concert and comedy shows will help Winston’s Village reach its goal of raising $30,000 toward baby Winston’s treatment.
The concert takes place Dec. 8 at Los Angeles’ Echoplex and the comedy show takes place the following day at The Echo, which is located at the same address, just above The Echoplex.
Your host for both the concert and comedy shows is Black Francis. He is set to perform solo in addition to playing with members of the Pixies and Grand Duchy, his duo with wife Violet Clark. Black Francis will get a little help from his friends on a few of the Pixies tunes with Flea taking over on bass and Weird Al handling vocal duties on the 1989 Doolittle tune “I Bleed,” according to Pitchfork.com.
Members of Love & Rockets and She Wants Revenge will also perform, as well as Michael Penn and The 88.
Dec. 9 The Echo will be filled with laughter as Tim & Eric (the goofy guys from the “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”), Bob Odenkirk, Brian Posehn and David Lovering roll out the jokes. Black Francis will also perform solo this night as well.
Tickets are available on The Echoplex/The Echo’s website for $20 in advance and $25 the day of show. A limited number of tickets to both shows are available for $35 each.
Click here for Winston’s Village’s website.
Click here for the Echoplex and Echo’s website.
Click here for the Pitchfork.com story.