Karen Ponzio Photos
Hannah Pimenta.
“I love everyone in this room, even if I don’t know you, because this is a room full of love,” Ben Mikula of the Alpaca Gnomes told the crowd right before the last song of the set he was playing with two other members of his band at Pacific Standard Tavern on Sunday afternoon. “I’m so glad to see people helping each other.”
Mikula was there along with a long roster of others to help raise money for the American SIDS Institute at the fifth annual Graceland benefit, held in loving memory of Grace Margaret Pimenta Fernandez, daughter of Hannah Pimenta, the founder and organizer of this event.
Grace was born on Sept. 21, 2010 and died of SIDS — sudden infant death syndrome — on Jan. 19, 2011.
“It took me a while to feel,” Hannah told the Independent before the show. “About a year later I was at Milford Hospital for an appointment and saw a sign about the American SIDS Institute. I knew right away I wanted to get involved.”
Pimenta contacted the institute in Florida and spoke with Betty MacIntyre, its executive director and CEO, to figure out what she could do to help and decided to go with a fundraiser.
“I had no idea what to do,” she said. So she reached out to good friend Ryan Schutt of the Kazoo Crew Family Band for assistance in setting something up.
The first fundraiser was in 2013. For the first two years, the event was held at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Milford. The two following years it was held in Westville at the now defunct Westside 2 Pint 0.
“It’s gotten bigger and bigger every year, from where we didn’t know what we were doing to this,” Pimenta said, noting that the first year raised $200 while last year’s raised over $2,000. According to Pimenta the owners of Pacific Standard Tavern, generously donated the use of their space for the event. There was a donation accepted at the door and a raffle of prizes donated by numerous local bars, restaurants, artists, and businesses as well as friends and family, who are deeply involved in the fundraiser as well. Pimenta cited co-organizer Teresa Montanari, as well as the aforementioned Schutt, her parents Eileen and Jeff, and sisters Sara, Mary and Meghan as all involved in making the event happen, and all were there throughout the afternoon assisting in all aspects of the event.
Pimenta hugged everyone she came in contact with, smiling and laughing as she talked with them. Four acts would be performing, and all of them exuded the same kind and friendly vibe. First to the stage was Fredrock and Friends, an act made up of Frederic Kaiser on vocals and guitar, Sean Koravo on bass (both of the band Ryxno), Ben LaRose of Marvelous Liars on drums, and Duncan Lindsey on vocals and guitar. The band, who Kaiser noted “never played together before today” played cover songs “we just learned,” including “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles, “The Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, and the Ryxno song “Cold Heartbreaker.” They kept it fun and loose and really rocked the crowd, many dancing along throughout, even through an unexpected mashup of the “The No No Song” by Ringo Starr and “Because I Got High” by Afroman. It was a spirited start to a full afternoon of music.
Members of The Alpaca Gnomes.
Next to the stage were three members of The Alpaca Gnomes — Ben Mikula on vocals and guitar, Matt Summ on percussion, and Mike Gargano on cajon. Mikula noted that the Gnomes had played all five years of these events, and were “always happy to be involved.” Songs like “Just in Case,” “Little Bit,” and “Chainsaw” were familiar to many in the crowd who sang and danced along. The band even threw in a Beastie Boys cover, which the crowd also ate up. At one point the band was joined by members of the Kazoo Crew Family Band, great friends of the Gnomes.
“We love them. They are family,” Mikula said. Mikula returned the favor later by singing on the Kazoo Crew’s first number.
The Shelton-based band Cabin Fever, in their third year of playing this event, came up next and jammed heavily through a few numbers. Band members Jason Hafele on guitar and vocals, Ryan Berry on bass, Pat Hafele on guitar and vocals, and Christian Mariano on drums included in their set covers of “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” by Robert Palmer and “Run” by Pink Floyd, a song one doesn’t usually associate with dancing but one that today in the hands of this band got the crowd grooving. Things got seriously funky with an extended and rocking version of “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc., which also included members of the Kazoo Crew joining in on bass, sax and keyboards. The room had really filled up by this time and the crowd loved everything they heard, responding loudly and wildly.
The Waterbury-based Kazoo Crew Family Band, which included Adam on sax and vocals, Chris on guitar, Riche on bass, Phil on drums, and Pat, Tara, and Ryan on kazoo and vocals, concluded the musical acts with six songs that brought the house down with the band’s unique energy and instrumentation.
“We’ve got a funky theme going here,” they said, after covering Kool and the Gang, keeping that well-loved driving funk backbeat going from song to song while adding in every level of their signature kazoo-based instruments, some lighting up as they were played, some adorned with streamers, and one accentuated by a flying pig. It was both a visually and audibly stunning set, and the band appeared to have just as much fun as the audience as they brought the show to a close.
Just before picking the raffle winners, Pimenta came to the stage to thank everyone there, including Schutt, who she said “is always my rock when it comes to this event.”
“I can’t thank you guys enough. I’d like to take credit, but I really can’t this year. It was everybody else. Everybody knows how much this event means to me,” she said, bringing herself and many others a few tears. But she immediately broke out into a smile. “I just want to thank you all, thank you guys for making it happen again.”
Raffle winners were chosen and awarded with much more hugging and cheering and excitement, much of it from Pimenta herself, ever the gracious host.
“It was such a beautiful turnout,” she said, still smiling.