Las Vegas shooting survivors launch benefit music festival

The song is about surmounting emotions that can seem insurmountable — the kind that stick in your throat, make you question things about yourself — and as he introduces it, Ben Carey has to do just that.

“Over the last 12 months, some days are better than others. Today is a hard day for me,” the guitarist for Vegas country rockers Elvis Monroe acknowledges while perched on the lip of the stage at the Eastside Cannery’s One Six Sky Lounge, 16 floors above Boulder Highway.

His voice cracking a bit, he pauses to collect himself, absorbing a quick hug from best friend and bandmate Bryan Hopkins, seated to his right.

Then Carey continues.

“I see people and they’re stuck on Oct. 2 of last year,” he says, a panoramic view of the Las Vegas Valley visible in the windows behind him. “For the two of us, it was about moving forward. This song is about that.”

With that, they begin an acoustic rendition of “The Fight,” a big-hearted anthem with an even bigger chorus, written in the aftermath of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting.

Hopkins and Carey performed the song last week at a gathering to discuss Country58, a new music festival founded by Route 91 survivors like themselves and named for the number of lives lost in the tragedy.

The daylong benefit show, which debuts Oct. 27 at the Henderson Pavilion, will serve the dual purpose of raising money for survivors and providing a safe space for country fans to feel comfortable attending outdoor music festivals in this city again.

In addition to live music, the family-friendly event will feature food, craft vendors, drawings and entertainment.

For each ticket sold, 25 percent of the proceeds will benefit the National Compassion Fund, and 100 percent of the money earned from the drawings will go to the Children of the 58 Foundation.

Country58 is intended to be an annual show. This year’s lineup features a mix of national performers such as Joe Nichols, Chase Bryant and Thompson Square, along with Vegas acts such as Elvis Monroe and The Rhyolite Sound.

The event was conceived by members of the staffing company for the bars at Route 91.

“They were there, of course, and so were all of the people they had hired to be there,” said Country58 event director Sarah Summers, who survived the shooting with her 20-year-old daughter. “For them, it was, ‘We need something big. This city needs something to look forward to again, to get excited about again,’ because there’s no shortage of sadness and sorrow, and that isn’t going to go away.”

For Jerome Hamilton, a Route 91 survivor who founded the Survivors Support Foundation as well as a Facebook survivors group page that has 7,500 members, Country58 ideally will be therapeutic.

“It’s all about helping people move forward,” said Hamilton, a former sheriff’s deputy whose foundation is among the causes that Country58 will benefit. “People suffer from PTSD. Some weren’t physically injured, but mentally. I see it every day in the support group. This will bring them together and let them take that baby step of knowing that it’s OK to go out again.”

One of the first bands the Country58 organizers reached out to was Elvis Monroe.

Hopkins and Carey attended the final night of Route 91, where they encountered a couple of Elvis Monroe fans from out of state.

“They ran up to us, said, ‘Hey, we saw you in Alaska a couple of years ago with Jake Owen and then last year with Lee Brice. Can we get a picture?’” Hopkins recalled. “Ten minutes later, he was one of the first ones who was shot and killed instantly. He was right behind us.”

Elvis Monroe would later travel to Alaska to perform a benefit show for the families of the victims. The group has done numerous charity concerts and has been playing “The Fight” nightly on tour.

“It’s important to us to strap our boots on, get back up on stage, play our music, make you laugh, have a good time,” Hopkins said. “But also remember why we’re doing this, for that night, so that we can move on.”

While the members of The Rhyolite Sound weren’t at Route 91, they feel for those who were.

“We’re still living our lives, but the people who were directly affected by this, it’s something they have to deal with every single day,” guitarist Erik Alesi said. “That’s the thing I think of all the time. That’s meaningful to me.”

For Summers, the idea is to help ensure that this meaningfulness endures.

“The 58 are never coming back, but they’re going to be a part of Las Vegas forever,” Summers said. “To have a benefit concert every year reminds us who we lost, reminds us that we have to do something every day with purpose because they weren’t given that opportunity. I want to keep growing that in the community.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.