When Sean McClure organized the first Fight of the Folks benefit concert three years ago, his biggest challenge was finding a snappy name.
The third installment of the show will take place Saturday at the Middle Earth cooperative living space.
Seventy-five percent of the money raised will go to Middle Way House, a local nonprofit that aids victims of domestic violence.
“Whenever I want to come up with a name for something, I just brainstorm for a week and carry a notepad around to write down all the interesting words that I can think of,” he said.
McClure is the lead singer and guitarist for local group How Green?, but he won’t perform on Saturday.
He said he’ll be too busy managing the logistics.
His co-organizer and former bandmate Kevin Weinberg will take the stage as the frontman for his “freak folk” band Wooly Bear.
“I like acoustic music, so it’s nice to hear and give it a spot and it’s time to shine,” Weinberg said.
McClure and Weinberg assembled a lineup of 12 local acoustic acts whose genres include Americana, singer-songwriter, free jazz, big band and everything in between.
“Since there’s just so many different bands, it, like, encourages a lot of different people to come,” McClure said.
Attendees are invited to donate five dollars, which allows them to vote for one act.
The act with the most votes at the end of the night receives 25 percent of the donations, while the rest of the money is sent to Middle Way House, McClure said.
Weinberg, who lives at Middle Earth, said his house’s connection with Middle Way House runs deep.
The organization owned the house before it was a co-op.
“They gave us a sweet deal on it, so we kind of owe them a little bit too,” he said.
Middle Way House is McClure’s favorite nonprofit organization in town, he said.
He’s organized multiple benefit poetry readings and concerts for the organization in the past, including the first Fight of the Folks show.
The first two Fight of the Folks shows brought in much more money than McClure expected, he said, so he’s excited to see how Saturday’s show turns out.
Weinberg said Middle Earth’s popularity as a music venue should help bring a large audience to the show.
“We’ve been having a lot of shows too, so I think there’s some momentum,” he said.
McClure said he expects the vibe to be a little mellower than a rocking house show, since almost all of the acts will perform unplugged.
“Before house shows, you hide all the valuables, and you hide your instruments, and you hide all your gear, but before acoustic events or poetry readings, you hide your avocados or your poetry collections,” he said. “There’s really, like, low worry that people are going to steal anything valuable.”
