SAIPAN – Local artist Jordan Paradise is bringing together a roster of homegrown bands and performers for a relief concert Sunday at the Typhoon Support Logistics Center, joining the wider community recovery effort with $5 admission or two cans of food at the door.
The No Bida Relief Show runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, in the upper parking lot of the Typhoon Support Logistics Center near the corner of Quartermaster Road. Doors are expected to open around 5 to 5:30 p.m.
Paradise told NMI News Service Friday on Good Morning Marianas that the show came together over the past two weeks. He said he had been thinking for weeks about how to throw a relief concert sustainably, then reached out to a band that had hosted earlier house concerts. He also met Kai Murrell of the Ayuda Network at the Typhoon Support Logistics Center, who agreed to host the event on site.
“With me, I want to keep that factor of hope in the community,” Paradise said. “What better way to do that than music?”
The lineup includes Free Fry Friday, a rock band from Marianas High School, set to kick off the show, followed by YORP, Paradise himself, a juggling and rap segment, a second YORP set, and Profound Bandits to close. Featured artists on the show’s flyer also include Kokyo and BakaDen.
Admission is $5 at the door, or free with a donation of two non-perishable canned food items. Drink tickets sell for $1 each, or four tickets for one canned food donation. The show will not sell alcohol, with attendees encouraged to bring their own and drink responsibly, Paradise said. A food truck is expected on site.
Paradise said the show is structured to bring food donations into the Typhoon Support Logistics Center, which he said has been well supplied with water but is lacking in food. Proceeds will go to the relief center to reimburse supplies the organization purchased for the event and to seed future concerts.
The stage was built from 36 pallets and plywood by the band YORP, who Paradise said are both musicians and stagebuilders by trade. He said Joeten Superstore donated the pallets for the build, and other sponsors are contributing tents and equipment. Power for the show will come from two generators.
Paradise said the show is intentionally focused on giving younger artists and bands a platform, particularly those who play outside the reggae genre that dominates much of the local music scene.
“Being a rapper in a reggae space has put me at an outcast,” Paradise said. “I know these other bands are in the same situation. They are heavy metal. They can do indie rock. Even the other rock band from MHS is outcast. Let’s bring the outcast together and be cohesive.”
Paradise said the concert follows a previous fundraising effort in which he raised $1,700 for school supplies through a song-based campaign. He said while two schools were considered total losses after Typhoon Sinlaku, he is collecting data on what supplies students most need.
