Las Vicious to rock for charity at Lex-Fest event

Las Vicious' angry, unhinged heavy metal music provides a stress outlet for the band members.

Three of Las Vicious' members are mental health nurses. Daniel Bodager on bass, Jeremy Gartner on guitar and Andrew Grigson, who plays drums and sings, met while working at Eastern State Hospital, a psychiatric treatment institution.

They say their music is an outlet to relieve stress from their jobs.

"The tone of the music overall sounds heavy and angry and that part of it is us venting, not even through words sometimes, just through the sound," says Grigson.

However, the mental-health theme resonates lyrically as well.

The band wrote Save Me, a track on its Empty Beds EP, about self-harm. And Andrea Van Voorhis, the lead vocalist and a biology and chemistry student, wrote Go It Alone from the perspective of someone with Alzheimer's.

Although psychiatric work can inspire feelings of outrage and defeat that make their way into the band's music, Grigson says the songs are meant to be uplifting and reflect the rewarding aspects of the job as well.

"Despite the anger, it's not depressing and hopeless," Bodager says.

The band also aspires to offer hope to others through performing in a Lexi-Fest concert Aug. 15 to benefit the local non-profit Greenhouse 17, which provides assistance to women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

"That non-profit, even though we didn't choose it, resonated with us," Bodager says.

The band hopes to raise a couple hundred dollars for the charity at the concert at Cosmic Charlie's, a rock-n-rap themed event, which it will headline.

Lexi-Fest, a monthly to bi-monthly concert series spun-off from the Lexington Music Awards last February, raises funds for local non-profits and awareness for talented Lexington bands and artists.

Often locally-based rock or metal groups become overlooked because major rock bands rarely perform in Lexington, Grigson says.

"There used to be a huge rock scene in Lexington and it's kind of died out," he says. "Even if it's not us, I would like for there to be rock bands from Lexington that get noticed, because there's a lot of great musicians in this town."

Las Vicious hopes to put out a full-length album within the year and perform more in other Kentucky cities, such as Louisville and Newport.

To appease their loyal Lexington supporters, though, the band plans to dispense a powerful performance at Lexi-Fest, including fog, light effects and their skeletal face paint, to create an ambience of chaos and madness, Grigson says. He adds, "It will be insanity."

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Las Vicious to rock for charity at Lex-Fest event."