John Joyner
The first night of WKNC's 12th annual Double Barrel Benefit concert series took place at Lincoln Theater in downtown Raleigh Saturday, Feb. 8, 2015.
WKNC sold more than 400 tickets for its 12th-annual Double Barrel Benefit Saturday night, exceeding the goal of raising $3,500.
The benefit concert took place at Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh and featured four bands that performed from 9 p.m. until after midnight. Though the balcony was closed, the bottom floor was packed with students and guests who came out in support of NC State’s student-run radio station.
The night kicked off with the band No Love. The guitar player and background vocalist of the band, Daniel Lupton, is an English professor at NC State and encourages his students to “stay punk.”
This was the first time No Love performed at the Double Barrel Benefit, but they plan to continue working with WKNC.
“We really like WKNC, and we would love to support it in the future,” said Elizabeth Lynch, band member of No Love.
Between acts, WKNC held raffles where audience members could win prizes, such as records, T-shirts and tote bags from the bands present or donated merchandise from other bands and record stores that WKNC reguarly works with. WKNC gave out 12 prizes over the course of the night.
The band Lonnie Walker also performed. Most of Lonnie Walker’s members met in Greenville.
“I’m excited for this event. We’ve done this before and sometimes just attended and it’s always a great time,” Eric Hill of Lonnie Walker said.
“WKNC has always been good to us and it’s great that they play our music,” said Brian Corum, band member of Lonnie Walker.
The closing act of WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit was Spider Bags. They carried on the concert long after midnight.
Steve Oliva, bass player, said that they would continue to play for WKNC any time they asked because they’re great at promoting local music and generating attendance. This was the third time that Spider Bags performed at the Double Barrel Benefit in Lincoln Theatre.
Spider Bags and No Love both performed new songs for the audience.
“The bands were all great and I really enjoyed the atmosphere,” said Jamie Walter, a sophomore studying human biology.
WKNC hopes to raise at least another $3,500 at part two of the Double Barrel Benefit. The second show will take place at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, on Saturday.
Lincoln Theatre assistant manager, April Sykes, also said that the benefit brought in good revenue for them.
“It’s a fun benefit that people really seem to enjoy and where both we and WKNC benefit from,” Sykes said.