Downtown Orlando

It was the compassion that made them perform. It was the passion from each artist in the venue that night that kept the audience entertained.

On Sunday night, The Social of Downtown Orlando hosted a Haiti Earthquake Benefit Show with guests Mike Dunn & The Kings of New England, The Pizza Brothers, Thomas Wynn, Christian Wilson, Louis DeFabrizio, Lauris Vidal and Erin Solari. These artists all performed for free, and audience members paid $10.00 that was contributed to Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders is a humanitarian organization of doctors and nurses who volunteer to provide urgent medical care in countries to victims of war and disaster regardless of race, religion or politics. Currently they are offering their services to Haiti.

The Social is an independent music venue situated on Orange Avenue, right in the middle of all the action. They are involved with music and venues all over the Orlando area. Gerard Mitchell, co-owner of The Social, tries to partner with other venues to host larger shows. “We promote shows at a variety of different venues around the City. We recently did Neko Case and City in Coluor at the Plaza Theater. We are co-promoting Owl City and Rebelution at The House of Blues and we have done Decemberist and Death Cab for Cutie at Hard Rock Live,” Mitchell said. 

The Haiti benefit event was new to The Social and the establishment was unsure how the turn out would be. However, they are known for covering a wide range of events and musical tastes. Mitchell attributes the success to their variety in shows. “We try to do the best live music shows regardless of genre. We cover many niches, so we can pull in many different audiences.” Erin Solari started Sunday’s night off with her deep, sensual voice that captured the listeners. Her jazzy music was smooth and beautiful, a perfect mix of voice and guitar.

As for regular performances, every Tuesday night The Social hosts an event called Phat N Jazzy with DJs BMF and Slack. “February 2010 will be 16 years BMF and I have been doing Phat N Jazzy. It started from a simple idea of playing quality underground acid jazz, funk soul and hip-hop, music not heard on the radio. The concept grew to include our record label Eighth Dimension Records, and Eighth Dimension Publishing,” Mitchell said. On a weekly basis they do both live bands as well as DJ’s and visual artists showcase their work. For the month of February, The Social is doing an anniversary series; February 2 and 9 will do a retrospective spanning 1994 to 2002 and 2002 to present. February 16th will be Peter Baldwin and Gerry Williams, and February 23 they will be hosting Swamburgers Expo Tees Event.

As for artists looking to get “discovered,” Mitchell has some words of advice. “Stick with it, as it is a long road. Before trying to book a show, make sure you have fans who want to see you.” For more information about The Social and upcoming events, visit www.thesocial.org.