Making money off JunK

FOR THE RECORD*****A photo caption in the Oct. 15 story “Making money off JunK” misspelled the name of band member Gish Stiffness. The story also should have listed the band’s website as www.thejunksite.com.*****

Taking the stage for Efren Davis is a way to escape — when he hits the first chord everything goes away — but this concert will bring him together with a situation that brought him face to face with the realities of how precious life is.

Davis is the singer-guitarist for punk rock band JunK and is playing a benefit concert for friend Jay Thomas, who was paralyzed during a surfing accident in Huntington Beach.

Before Thomas’ accident, Davis said he regarded life differently. A surfer himself, Davis said he hit his head all the time.

“It blew me away,” Davis said. “I feel that life is precious.”

Thomas’ tribulations have made JunK and three other local bands want do something to help him. The bands will take the stage Sunday to raise money for Thomas’ physical therapy.

“Jay is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” said Julia JunK, the band’s drummer. “He deserves a full recovery and if we can help him in anyway, we’ll do it.”

Thomas, a Costa Mesa resident, said he was surfing on the south side of the pier in March when an accident left him with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed from the chest down. Only about 15 minutes after paddling out, Thomas was riding a wave when he realized he was about to collide with another surfer paddling out.

Thomas jumped off his board, head first into the water to avoid hitting the other surfer. The water was shallow, and he hit his head and broke his neck, Thomas said. Floating in the water and unable to breathe, Thomas said he was later told a fellow surfer, who was a Huntington Beach firefighter, saw the accident and got him out of the water.

“Whoever the fireman was ... he basically saved my life,” Thomas said.

In the hospital doctors decided he had an incomplete spinal cord injury and might be able to made a recovery, but no one knows for sure the extent of recovery that is possible, he said.

“You kind of have to accept the position you are in, but still hold on to some kind of hope that a recovery can by made,” Thomas said.

Thomas is doing rehabilitation in Brea and Long Beach, and moved up to Placentia to be closer to his physical therapy.

Thomas said his insurance covered about 12 sessions and each session after is about $100.

His friends have put events to help him pay for the physical therapy.

“It’s hard to find the words,” he said. “You can’t say thank you enough.”

The members of JunK have been friends with Thomas for years, and Julia JunK said the band just wants to help out.

The band has been together for about a year, but before that Julia JunK, bass player Gish Stiffness and guitarist Scott O’Brien had been a band for 16 years.

The three bandmates were joined by Davis, who brought a different sound, but “it’s still punk rock and it’s still pretty raw,” Julia JunK said.

Coming into the band was a lot of pressure, but was natural, Davis said. The members had been friends for years and surfed together

“In the first 10 minutes we could feel we were all on the same page,” Julia JunK said.

The Costa Mesa band recently recorded “Spirit in the Sky” for MTV’s “Nitro Circus” and has a demo on www.junksite.com. JunK is playing at 10 p.m. Friday at Malone’s at 605 E. Dyer Road in Santa Ana.

In addition to JunK, Smogtown, Dano and the Junk Joint Freakshow, and Harbor Saints are going to play.

Those not interested in the music but who still want to support Thomas can come early for dinner.

DiPiazza’s is donating 20% of all dinner receipts that night.

DiPiazza’s starts serving dinner at 5 p.m. and the concert begins at 6:30 p.m.

A series of events have been held to raise money for Thomas from a tattoo fundraiser at White Lotus Tattoo to a Surf-a-Thon by Dano Forte of Dano Surfboards and different events by Mother’s Market and Spaghetti Bender in Newport Beach.

“You’re never going to be able to say in words what it means to you,” Thomas said. “They are basically helping you get your life back.”

If You Go

What: A Benefit Concert for Jay Thomas

Where: DiPiazza’s at 5205 E. Coast Hwy. in Long Beach

When: Dinner starts at 5 p.m. and the concert begins at 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $10 cover charge for the show

Donate: www.jaysroadtorecovery.blogspot.com