This year’s Music for a Cure benefit event brought together good music, a good cause, good hearts, plus beautiful people, places and things.

“The Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll” party Friday night, Nov. 2, featured a concert by Sugar Ray and Smashmouth; artfully tasteful food and cocktails; a silent and a live auction, all at the gorgeous, intimate Samueli Theatre at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. All the event proceeds go to Music for a Cure, the heart-warming charity started by Sugar Ray bassist Murphy Karges and his wife, Julie, to bring music into the lives of sick and financially needy children.

The Kargeses have done everything from bringing performers to hospitalized kids to providing instruments and music lessons to underprivileged children. And on Friday night, the Kargeses presented a $1 million check to Children’s Hospital of Orange County to endow a music therapy program there.

Last year, this event was held at the gorgeous Laguna Beach hillside home of Charlie and Brandi Hawkins, where a very rare rainstorm literally whipped the canopy off the backyard “stage” where Sugar Ray had just started playing and sent cold, wet guests — most laughing, some yelping — into the house. That led to some great mingling with strong drinks around a fireplace and eventually drew Sugar Ray and Smashmouth out with a couple of guitars for a fantastic, one-of-a-kind singalong session.

This year’s event was a tad more formal and sophisticated, but not overly so. There was still a cozy, house party vibe, with the beautifully dressed guests (lots of perfectly coiffed women in clingy, cleavage-bearing gowns) mingling in a familar, friendly way.

There’s a long list of local businesses and individuals (that I don’t have space to detail here but include the Orange County Register, Patina Restaurant Group and Saks Fifth Avenue) who generously supported this event by providing money, auction items, food and other support services.

As a result, there were lots of cool things to bid on both in the silent auction (guitars signed by Sugar Ray and Social D; a gorgeous, fully stocked golf bag; some cool custom Nirve cruiser bikes) and in the live auction (The Lakers Luxury Suite went for about 4Gs; “The Ultimate Race Experience” - a day in a Roush Mustang with an autographed Dale Jarret race suit thrown in - went for a bit more than that).

Sugar Ray played a great, fun set (including “Every Morning,” “Someday”) that had most everyone on the dance floor. Even the VIPs stood and boogied at their special tables on an upper landing: I actually caught sight of some Orange County Register execs shakin’ it! Sugar Ray pals Smashmouth followed with an energetic set to close the evening.

For lots more party pics, click here.

For a video clip, click here.

I continue to be impressed by Sugar Ray not just as a good band, but as a group of good-hearted, sincerely nice people. Besides Murphy and Julie Karges, who are always warm and charming and obviously generous, drummer Stan Frazier and his wife, Jennifer, (at right in the picture below, with friend Jennifer Davis of the Orange County Register) are likewise always warmly welcoming and thoughtful. After Sugar Ray’s set, Stan happened to see me standing near one of the humungous speakers and came over to say “hi” and express concern about my ear drums.

Most of the band still lives in Orange County and are devoted to local communities. These grounded guys, and their lovely wives, prove you don’t have to be a sloppy, selfish, immature celebrity like so many we’ve been hearing about in the news lately.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Events, Music, Nightlife, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.