The 2nd Annual RESTOCK Charity event benefiting the Dayton Foodbank and Helping the Homeless Dayton was an evening of great music and amazing generosity! Oddbody’s Music Room was buzzing with Dayton area music fans armed with boxes and bags of donations in support of two of the Miami Valley’s best charitable endeavors!
The Dayton Foodbank is the heartbeat of an expansive
network of over 100 food pantries scattered throughout Greene, Montgomery, and Preble Counties! Through community and corporate donations the Dayton Foodbank continues its work to help relieve hunger in the Miami Valley.
Helping the Homeless Dayton creator Trena Elam is a 
champion for our area homeless! Instead of ignoring the ever growing problem of homelessness in the Miami Valley, Elam has taken it upon herself to stand up and fight for those less fortunate. Elam distributes donations to area shelters and at times combs the streets looking for those who may be in need of clothing, blankets, coats, and ready to eat food.
The event sponsored by Guitars to Gunstocks, Artistic Delirium Tattoo, and Music Connection Dayton, LLC featured an eclectic line-up of some of the area’s best bands and musicians all who donated their time and talents for the cause!
Metal warriors, Forces of Nature, kicked things off with a face melting set that included a killer version of “Throwing Fists”. Next up were the masters of mayhem, Menace 2 Sobriety; these guys are always ready for a party! At RESTOCK, the band nearly blew the roof off the joint when they broke out one of my favorite party tunes called “Tonight”. To wrap up the Metal segment of the night we welcomed Xenia’s own Omeni. The band swarmed the Oddbody’s stage with an aggressive assault that turned more than a few heads!
Neilson Hixson and the Oddbody’s stage & sound crew kept things rollin throughout the night. It didn’t take long to transform the stage for the singer/songwriter portion of 
RESTOCK featuring Scott Lee, Tony Herdman, and Sharon Lane. The trio shared the stage in a round-robin type setting with Lee opening things up with a great original tune called “Rough Road at the Bottom”. For all you Americana/Folk fans out there, Scott Lee is a name that should be on your radar! The talented Tony Herdman treated us to a few great tunes that included “DUI” and a beautiful new song called “Raise Your Glass” written in honor of long time friend and Dayton legend, Norman Dimitrouleas. The incomparable Sharon Lane mesmerized the room in typical fashion! Lane’s ability to captivate an audience is uncanny. Accompanied by Sax man, Danny Sauers, the pair wowed the RESTOCK crowd into submission with their rendition of “Once in a Blue Moon”!
As the crew readied the stage for the next portion of the show I, had the pleasure as emcee of dishing out the great raffle prizes collected for the event. Oddbody’s was kind enough
to donate tickets to the sold out Here Comes the Mummies show as well as tickets to see Mipso and the upcoming Soil show. The folks at Love of Life Inc. donated 4 tickets to this year’s Wham Bam Thank U Jam extravaganza and Guitars to Gunstocks raffled off a nice Epiphone Bass and beautiful Mermaid inspired Guitar. Artist, Bret Eikenbery, donated several signed prints as well as a badass scorpion metal sculpture that was up for silent auction!
The night was still young with plenty of great music to come! Up next was the Indie/Rock goodness of Far From Eden. The band’s dual guitar threat, powerful vocals, and dark 
lyrics help to give Far From Eden a distinctively unique sound. On this night, the band offered up an amazing set of originals that included a great new tune called “Like Fire”. Emily and the Lost Cat Ramblers took to the stage next with their unique blend of Americana and Rock & Roll. The lively set had folks on their feet and moving especially when the band broke into a funky version of War’s “Low Rider”. Now that was a lot of fun!
Things got even funkier when The Mainline Funk got rollin! These masters of improv are
always eager to explore the unknown and take each song to new heights. The band’s RESTOCK set was funkin’ insane and included a smokin’ tune called “Yellow Lines’. For the evening’s finale, The Big Damn Jam took to the Oddbody’s stage. The All-Star cast of top area musicians, that included Guitarist Eric Henry (Miss Lissa & Co.) and Sax man Kevin Dumont, brought the heat for an incredible set of funky badness! I can’t think of a better way to end an amazing day of music!
Huge thanks to everyone who came out in support of RESTOCK 2016! Thanks to Oddbody’s, Bret Eikenbery, Artistic Delirium Tattoos & Piercings, Guitars to Gunstocks, Love of Life Inc, and everyone that 
donated items for the raffles! Through ticket sales, raffles, a cool donation from Oddbody’s, and T-shirt sales donated by Just Ink Tees, the total cash contribution to the Dayton Foodbank was $2500 to go along with 382 pounds of food donations! At the Foodbank, $1 equals 4 meals, and with that cash donation, they can now provide 10,000 meals!
Thanks to all who piled in donations for Helping the Homeless Dayton, there was enough to fill a pickup and two cars to the rim!
Thank you to all the bands and performers for donating their time and talents for the event! Thank you for a fantastic night of music!
Thanks to the Oddbody’s staff and all the volunteers that help throughout the night!
Thanks to Jacob Collins of Guitars to Gunstocks and Artistic Delirium Tattoos for holding such a cool event! Music Connection Dayton was PROUD to be a part of this extravaganza for the 2nd year in a row and hope it continues on for many years to come!
Music Connection Dayton 