“Getting three lawyers and a university student in one room is more difficult than you’d expect,” said Paul Sharp to me one morning last week. And yet, this is precisely what Sharp, an associate at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) in Toronto, along with fellow BLG associates Kalvin Sie and Jeffrey Spiegel, and sociology student Steve Valentini, do regularly for the love of punk rock.
Sharp, Sie, Spiegel and Valentini are the members of The Blacklines, a band defined by its “significantly louder and faster” punk rock takes on pop rock classics. The Blacklines is just the latest incarnation of its members’ individual musical forays: Sharp and Valentini toured as a punk rock band for three years, Sie has been writing his own songs, and Spiegel appears entirely at home with late-night practices.
Their love of punk rock aside, this band also performs in order to contribute to a significant social cause. This year, The Blacklines will be playing at AIDSbeat, the legal community’s annual benefit concert for CANFAR.
The event has traditionally been attended by more than 1,500 lawyers from various Toronto firms, and has raised over $2 million for AIDS research. This year’s AIDSbeat will be Vegas themed, and will stay true to promise with an on-site wedding chapel, a casino, and a request that guests arrive in their “favourite boa.”
The revelry will doubtless also be fuelled by the competition for three prizes: the Lexpert Cup for best band, People’s Choice Award for best band, and a Best (read: Most Outrageously) Dressed Prize.
When I ask The Blacklines how they plan on partaking in the Vegas-themed outrageousness, laughing, Sharp and Spiegel tell me that the band cannot decide between on-stage white tiger gladiatorial combat and high suspension Cirque du Soleil-type acrobatics, so will likely give a nod to Vegas mainly through their music.
What: 2011 AIDSbeat
Where: Kool Haus, Toronto
When: Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8pm
Tickets: Purchase here.
Photo: Facebook
Maria Gergin is a Toronto articling student. Her column, Leisure Aid, appears every other Friday here at lawandstyle.ca.