Gin Blossoms play Missoula with a cause

New Miserable Experience may have made its debut in 1992, but 27 years later on a warm August night at the Wilma Theatre, the Gin Blossoms played the entire album.

An enthusiastic crowd filled the venue, and many celebrated the music from from their high school and college years.

The band, from Tempe, Arizona, made its rise as Seattle launched the grunge movement. The Gin Blossoms' pop-rock sound  still contrasts with the punk/metal sounds of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others.

Halfway through their set, lead singer Robin Wilson turned crowd's attention to the cause “No More Deaths,” an aid organization based out of Tucson that looks to “end death and suffering of migrants on the U.S. Border.”

The band auctioned off the tambourine Wilson played during the concert with the proceeds going to the organization.

I appreciated this as art – whatever the medium – has a way of coaxing of society to look at life in new ways. In this small effort, perhaps, a few hearts were challenged to re-think what's happening on the border.

Death is something this band is familiar with, after all. Doug Hopkins, the original lead guitarist and major songwriter of the debut album, committed suicide in 1993.

To see more images from the concern, follow this link.