MxPx keeps playing, even after their instruments quit

“They put a smile on my face that hasn’t been there in a few weeks,” said Paula Wade, mother of the late 9-year-old Tyler Wade, at a benefit show for her family. “I couldn’t even put into words what it means to me.”
It wasn’t a perfect evening for an outdoor concert, so tarps were hung over the outdoor section of Moondogs Too in Port Orchard. The gaps between the tarps were just large enough to let rain in, and just short enough to funnel the redirected water onto the back of the stage.
The show was organized as a benefit for the family of Tyler, who was found hanging in a tree Oct. 16 while playing with friends. The incident was determined to be a prank that went too far, and he was found by his friends when they returned outside to continue playing.
A $10 cover charge was collected at the door with all of the proceeds going to the family, and raffle tickets were sold for a dollar each, or 12-ish for $10. The show was all-ages until 8 p.m., when Port Orchard city ordinance required everyone under the age of 21 to leave the bar.
“I wanted children to be a part of it,” said Jondrea Hubbell, the organizer of the show and friend of Tyler’s mother, “since he was young.”
Hubbell’s choice in bands to play was based on Paula Wade’s appreciation of rockabilly music, existing friendships with bands and by talking to Paula Wade’s friend from work, Yuri Ruley, the drummer of MxPx.
“For me (it’s) totally personal, Paula’s a friend of mine,” said Ruley. “I wanted to do anything I could to help.”
Ruley said he talked to Mike Herrera, the lead singer of both MxPx and Tumbledown, and Herrera and the rest of the members of the bands agreed they should get involved.
Most of the bands that played the Saturday show had played at Moondogs Too before the benefit, and most of them had played together before, adding to the sense of friendship and community at the event. That line of communication between the bands may have helped spread the word of what Hubbell was doing.
“I just found a way to get a hold of them and asked them to help,” said Hubbell. “Everybody’s been really awesome, and willing to help.”
Hubbell was able to keep the overhead for the event at zero by getting the bands to donate their time, businesses to donate items and Moondogs Too to donate space.
“Businesses need to be a part of the city and part of the community,” said Darryl Baldwin, owner of Moondogs Too. “It’s a tough situation, but God must have had a different plan for him.”
The show started at 4 p.m., kind of. The first band, Steelscape, did go on shortly after 4, but since it was a local show there was an obligatory scheduling problem. After the first of the six bands played Saturday there was a long wait before the second band started their set. After the second band, the rotation started moving fluidly. There was a short lull between bands, but local businesses and the bands playing donated items for a raffle, and ticket numbers were called in the downtime.
The crowd started to rile up when Olalla-based The Enemies Of took the stage and started playing their vintage-punk style music. The five-piece band took time between songs to toast the family and remind the crowd of approximately 75 why we were there.
“It’s all about family, kids and shit like that,” said The Enemies Of lead singer, Jef. “They’re a part of my community and because of that I care about them.”
Before their last song, the band invited fellow performer and following act James Hunnicutt onto the stage to be with the band while they closed their set.
Hunnicutt’s style was slower and more mellow than most of the previous bands, he was alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, singing songs that you felt were coming from deep inside of him. Even though the crowd was quieter during his set, there was no loss of excitement while Hunnicutt was on stage.
Since Hunnicutt didn’t use much equipment, MxPx was able to get ready while Hunnicutt was setting up. This almost helped MxPx start their set on time, if not a few minutes early. The guitar amp set up for Jack Parker, MxPx’s guitar player for the night, set his amp up where rain was falling off the over-head tarps, and the water blew a fuse in the guitar head, leaving it useless without repairs.
While the band was waiting for a fix to their broken equipment, Herrera played a very short acoustic set, including “Invitation to Understanding,” which is my favorite song and probably one of the finest songs ever written.
After 15 minutes of looking for a replacement fuse, The Enemies Of brought their guitar head on stage for Parker to use. Parker is the normal guitar player for Tumbledown, but filled in for Tom Wisniewski who left for work in Japan Sunday. Parker seemed to fit into the band while they performed some of their older songs, playing nothing newer than the ‘00 hit “Responsibility,” and was able to keep up without any major mistakes.
Ruley, the drummer for MxPx, came out from behind his drums to play the bass, while a friend of the band filled in on the drums for one song before Ruley returned as the percussionist.
The set was relatively short performance, they made it through their set list, but the crowd was left wanting more at the end of the performance, chanting “One more song” while Paula Wade took the stage to thank everyone for coming out.
The crowd refused to yield when she tried to get everyone’s attention, and only quieted when Herrera took the mic to announce Tumbledown would play some MxPx songs.
The setup for Tumbledown took less than 10 minutes, but in that time a string broke on Herrera’s acoustic-electric guitar and the PA system being used for the show stopped working. Herrera announced Tumbledown wouldn’t be able to perform, and most of the crowd began to leave, dwindling from approximately 150 – 200 spectators to no more than 25 people in the outdoor area.
One of the attendees told Herrera he really wanted to hear “Move to Bremerton,” from MxPx’s ‘95 album Life in General, so Herrera pulled an acoustic guitar from a case, and met approximately 15 fans at the base of the stage to perform the song for the last of the audience still in attendance. Herrera was playing and singing over the ambient sound without any type of amplification, but was still drowned out at times by the singing of the members of the crowd.
“We just always try to help out our friends and our community,” said Herrera. “It’s a simple thing to do but it means a lot to them.”