There was a bonus benefit to the Joe Kaluza Benefit concert, Twelfth Night, at The Wedge, Dec. 12. Joe Kaluza got to hear the music played on his behalf.

Kaluza, the KFC manager who is paralyzed as a result being shot during a robbery, was able to attend the concert and particularly liked the reggae band 5 Elements (according to family members), joining the host of fans who party at all the band’s shows.

Twelfth Night was the latest in a series of community outreach efforts to help a man characterized by all who know him as a decent, hard working man, who was gunned down during a planned robbery which netted the stupid gangsters enough money for one night’s fun and many years in prison.

The event was conceived and orchestrated by Wedge manager Ali Awad, “as a combination of trying to do something to help Joe and his family, and to promote live local music. I just wish we could have done more,” Ali said.

He did plenty. Awad and Cory Hughey, the director of marketing and promotions at The Wedge — which has been owned by Awad’s cousin, Sami Awadallah, since this June — gathered 10 bands for the eight hour show, solicited $450 in gifts from area merchants for a raffle, sold wrist bracelets, and held a 50/50 raffle to help raise donations.

Mixing bands playing diverse genres had an additional salutary effect. In an area often criticized for cultural and ethnic separation, Twelfth Night made for an unlikely, if brief, mingling, as the fans of each band — about 500 throughout the evening — gathered for their favorites and then dispersed.

Most curious was not that the audience for hip-hop acts Da Kreek and 2Fly was largely black, or that the 5 Elements drew a lot of young white women, while metal bands Deviance Theory, Wake the Lion, War Between One, My Dear Enemy, Fuzztub, Gingerspittz and Grand Fury saw predominantly young white males in the crowd, but that so few fans stayed beyond their band’s gig.

Three young guys who go to all the Wake the Lion shows and know all the words to their songs, left almost immediately afterwards. “The show’s over,” they said.

Well, JamBrain begs to differ. The show was just getting going, and those who stayed — including the guest of honor Joe Kaluza — enjoyed a varied show by some of the area’s very talented musicians at a unique venue, while doing their part to help.