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  • Paul and Mike Bolger, guitarists and vocalists for the Chicago jam band Mr. Blotto, open a Friday night set at the Granada Center for the Performing Arts. RORYE O’CONNOR/REGISTER-NEWS

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January 31, 2010

Events coming to Granada in February

By RORYE O’CONNOR

rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — February will bring a variety of events to the King City’s Granada Center for the Performing Arts.

The events will begin 6 p.m. Feb. 5 with the “Freezin’ Riders Winter Classic Benefit Concert,” a first-time event featuring the music of two bands, Blind Date and 300 Circle Drive.

The concert, for which admission is $10, is being hosted by Mom and Pop Productions, WDML, the Granada, the A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education Freedom Riders, and A.B.A.T.E. Chapter 27. The event will benefit the Warren G. Murray Developmental Center in Centralia, the Granada and the Amy Schultz Child Advocacy Center.

The bands will be shooting a video for Youtube during the concert to promote upcoming albums, said Blind Date band member Bob Lograsso.

Lograsso said event organizers chose the Granada for the first-time event because of the venue’s value to the community.

“We just wanted to get more people involved and see what a great venue the Granada is,” he said. “We wanted to get people to future events.”

The band Blind Date is comprised of musicians Lograsso, Greg Calvert, Dana Demaris and Tony Malaway, and plays classic rock music, Lograsso said. 300 Circle Drive is a band with a primarily pop punk sound comprised of members Michael Lograsso (Bob Lograsso’s son), Donnie Calvert (Greg Calvert’s son) and Danny English, Bob Lograsso said.

“We’re very excited,” Bob Lograsso said of the upcoming charity show. “I think it’s going to be cool; I’m very pumped up.”

For more information on the bands to play at the Feb. 5 show, check out their Web site heatofthebeat.com.

The next upcoming event at the Granada will require attendees to slip on masks.

The 2010 Masquerade Ball from 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Feb. 6 will feature music, dancing and appetizers. The event is being held by the Orthopedic Center of Southern Illinois Relay for Life team, and all proceeds will benefit the Relay for Life.

Costumes are optional, but attendees should dress in formal or semi-formal wear, information states.

Tickets are $20 for singles or $30 for couples.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call Carol Kock or Margaret Dycus at 242-3778.

The Granada will also kick off Valentine’s Day early with a screening of the 1934 romance “It Happened One Night” 7 p.m Thursday, Feb. 11. The screening of the classic film featuring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert is sponsored by St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital, said Granada Center for the Performing Arts board member David Lister. The film screening will be free and open to the public, information states.

February’s offering in the Classic Kids Matinee Series will be the 1986 animated film “An American Tail.” The screening will be 2 p.m. Feb. 13, and Integra Bank will give away a $100 U.S. savings bond.

Lister said he was encouraged by the amount of events the Granada has been able to host in the past few months, as well as ones in the future.

“Every event, we get a new volunteer or someone to donate to the Granada,” he said. “It’s amazing how it’s gaining steam and really is coming around.”

For more information, visit the Granada’s Web site at www.granada.mvn.net or call 740-0707.

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