Good Charlotte will play an outdoor show this Saturday on the one-month anniversary of the Capital Gazette shooting. Newspaper staffers Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and Gerald Fischman all died in the shooting on June 28. The event, called Annapolis Rising, is hosted by Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley.
“Annapolis has always been a very special place to Good Charlotte,” says guitarist and keyboardist Billy Martin. “I’d like to think we can bring a little light to such a horrible tragedy. It’s great to see the city come together like this and we are really happy to be included.”
The rock band hails from Waldorf. Each original member—vocalist Joel Madden, guitarist and vocalist Benji Madden, bassist Paul Thomas, and Martin—attended the same high school and started playing in garages in 1996 (drummer Dean Butterworth joined in 2005). The band gained traction playing in bars in DC followed by appearances at HFStival at RFK Stadium in 1998 and 1999, put on by the now-defunct DC/Baltimore radio station WHFS. When he heard about the shooting, “The first thing I did was look to see if anyone I knew was hurt,” says Martin. “It was an awful situation and I feel for the families who lost someone they loved.”
More than a half-dozen bands are set to play, along with appearances from Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, and Lucy Dalgish, dean of the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Annapolis Rising will begin at noon with doors opening at 11 AM and is located on Calvert Street between West and Northwest Streets. All proceeds will go toward the Capital Gazette Families Fund. Tickets are $25 ($30 day-of; children under 10 are free with a paying adult) and can be purchased here.
Good Charlotte is scheduled to take the stage at 8:30 PM.
Kim Olsen ([email protected]) is a freelance writer in Alexandria.
