This Domino Room music event on Saturday, Dec. 2, 7pm will feature an explosive lineup of amazing music from local bands Fractal and Watkins Glen to help spread awareness and raise funds for the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and its mission of restoration, preservation and promotion of clean and accessible water sources in Central Oregon.
This fundraising concert, an annual event, in its second year, previously raised funds for music nonprofit, the Mockingbird Foundation. With its final preparations ongoing, I spoke with Jarrod Donatelli, Fractal band-member and one of the organizers of the event.
"We raised over $6,000 last year." Donatelli said proudly. "This year we've decided to keep the money local and keep it in our community. I reached out to them (the Watershed Council,) and they were super into it. We've raised a little over $4,000 currently for this year's event."
As the percussion player for Fractal, Donatelli insists that the band is truly the sum of its parts, utilizing its many musical influences as starting points for improvisation. "We're a five-piece jam band, and we're definitely influenced by bands like Lotus, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Phish, Grateful Dead. It's this style of jam-tronica." Donatelli continued, "I've always enjoyed that style of music and nobody around seemed to be doing anything with it at the time... But I love all kinds of stuff, it can go from Chris Stapleton to Phish to Pink Floyd."
On the subject of original songs, Donatelli promised new tunes from the band sometime early next year, before spilling the secret on exactly how the band plans to warm up for the concert. "We'll be going into the studio the weekend after Thanksgiving, actually," Donatelli said. "We're going to go in and live track four or five tunes. We'll be fresh from the studio right before the event, it'll be great."
This rock 'n roll benefit isn't just about head-banging anthems or soul-stirring ballads; it's a fusion of sensational melodies and an appreciation for unwavering community advocacy. Amid the contagious energy and infectious beats of working in a band, Donatelli also runs a tattoo studio, ZenArt Ink Tattoo Studios, located on Division Street in Bend.
"It's really important to me that we give back to a community that has allowed our business to thrive for the past decade," he said.
