Reed England performs with Oddz R, headlining the new music festival known as HutchFest debuting at The Commons on Friday.
In his boyhood, Reed England would ride his bike to the Crump Theatre to watch movies. Today, decades later, he’s excited to watch the old structure transform into a nearly renewed venue.
And it’s a locale that he and his bandmates in the local classic rock group Oddz R will support when they headline the new music festival known as HutchFest on Friday at The Commons in downtown Columbus.
Cottonpatch and Brown 25 are the other two ensembles performing at the event from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Proceeds will go to support the Crump and the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation. Tickets are $10 and available at landmarkcolumbusfoundation.org.
“I would like to see the theater back up and running again,” said England, a guitarist and vocalist with the group that formed in 2011.
Oddz R’s keyboardist Ben Wever proposed the idea for the music festival as a source of entertainment and funding. The name arose because the date selected fell on the birthday of longtime Crump visionary and supporter Hutch Schumaker, also a Landmark Foundation board member. Wever has been a seminar speaker at a few symposiums of Exhibit Columbus, a program of Landmark Columbus Foundation.
England mentioned that Oddz R’s set list probably will stretch slightly more than 90 minutes and include 15 tunes, including Elton John, Journey, Chicago, Joe Cocker, Steppenwolf, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others.
“We do longer song versions and add in some jam sessions,” England said.
Kim DeClue of Cottonpatch mentioned that the group still was finalizing its set list to open the event at this section’s press time. But he said he felt sure it would include songs by Crosby Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and others. Like England, DeClue’s childhood is filled with magical memories of The Crump and its Saturday afternoon monster movie features and more.
He figures there might be challenges to programming the venue with other spaces available locally.
“But it certainly be a shame,” DeClue said, “to see it ever go away.”
