City of ML hosts first outdoor concert with hopes to launch live music series

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

The Spokane band “Mon Cheri” will play at Medical Lake's Coney Island Park Thursday, July 15 as city officials audition the idea of holding a series of free outdoor concerts this summer.

Medical Lake Parks and recreation coordinator Ashlee King said for more than a year she and other city officials have discussed having bands play in the park, using Cheney's outdoor concert series as a model. Cheney funds their concerts through local sponsorships, but King said Medical Lake will finance this first concert before looking at other possibilities in the future.

“This is sort of our trial run,” she said. “We'll see how everything goes and go from there.”

It took some time to harmonize the setting with a suitable band, King said. “It was my goal to get it started this summer, but since we're offering it for free to the entire community we wanted to find the right, family friendly band to appeal to a wide audience.”

She said Mon Cheri came to mind in part because drummer Brandon Vasquez is a 2003 graduate of Medical Lake High School and still has friends and family living in town.

Mon Cheri, which means “my dear” in French, formed as a foursome about a year and a half ago with Vasquez, guitarist/vocalist Patrick McHenry, vocalist Caroline Francis and bassist Kurt Olson. Vasquez describes the band's sound as “Indy-pop with tinges of jazz and folk in the style of the Everly Brothers and the Beatles,” adding that the group performs both covers and originals.

Mon Cheri has kept busy, playing dozens of shows in and around the Spokane area as well as releasing a six-song EP in April to accompany last year's full-length album. They just wrapped up a 10-day tour down the West Coast and will play a gig every Monday night at the Spokane nightspot Zola, beginning June 21.

“If you as a band don't have a solid foundation in your hometown or your home state there's really no point in touring,” McHenry said. “We're looking to remain busy in the Northwest, not move out from Spokane but branch out into Portland and Seattle a little more to get some steam going.”

McHenry said the band has played countless outdoor shows in the past and plans to perform at Couer d' Alene's Art on the Green and Spokane's Pig Out in the Park this summer as well as at numerous other events. “We're kind of an outdoor band, we have a good time vibe – not a rainy day band, more like sunshine and flowers,” he said.

Mon Cheri will play Thursday, July 15 starting at 7:30 p.m. at Coney Island Park, Lake and Jefferson streets in Medical Lake. For more information on the band, including music clips, visit myspace.com/moncheriband.

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].