Lawlapalooza, an annual music event at Phoenix Hill Tavern, featured eight bands on Oct. 16. Each band had to have at least one practicing attorney, law student or professor at Brandeis School of Law.
The event started in 2005, and was originally called Battle of the Legal Bands. It was a fundraiser for Brandeis School of Law’s Samuel L. Greenebaum Public Service Program. The fundraiser was intended to grow on an initial gift by the Louisville-Jefferson County Women Lawyers Association, a gift given in memory of Ellen Ewing. As the event grew, the name changed to a more iconic “Lawlapalooza.”
The event is a 21-and-up event, with a different theme every year. This year, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Beatle mania, the theme was “A Brandeis Night”: a play on words on the hit Beatles movie, “A Hard Day’s Night.” Each band had to play at least one Beatles song, but some of the bands decided to truly immerse themselves in the theme and played an entire set of the Beatles’ hits. Typically, each band played a repertoire of various classic rock hits. Some of the favorites were an energetic rendition of “Take on Me” performed by Irrational Basses and a Queen medley of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Killer Queen” and “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
All the bands were there for fun, none getting paid and for most of the bands this is the only gig they will play for the entire year.
The band who brought in the most donations received a small trophy. “All the donations go to the Judge Ellen B. Ewing Fund,” event planner James Becker said, “which provides up to $4,000 in summer fellowship funding for a University of Louisville law student to gain valuable practice experience while helping underserved populations by working at the Louisville Legal Aid Society in the areas of family law, domestic violence, spouse abuse and HIV/AIDS.”
