chh@heraldsun.com; 419-6654
CHAPEL HILL -- N.E.D. is, by most any measure -- self-admission included -- an unusual new rock band.
It's not the album cover photo of the six musicians that gives them away. It suggests they look just like one might expect rock musicians would: all wearing simple, dark clothes, some holding guitars; a bald man and a woman with muscular arms as lead singers standing in the front of the picture.
But this is not your garden variety grunge band or heavy metal garage rockers railing at the establishment and people over 30 -- all six are gynecologic oncologists. Their band name, N.E.D., stands for "No Evidence of Disease." Their music is their inspirational method of fighting the despair of women with cancer.
Two "rock docs," as the local media has dubbed the band, are from UNC. And this weekend is their first time performing in North Carolina -- in Carrboro's Cat's Cradle on Saturday, and Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre on Sunday.
John Boggess, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC and Rex Hospital, is the bald lead singer with a beard. He is also the one organizing the weekend.
The other local band member is John Soper, Hendricks professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC. He is N.E.D.'s guitarist, and Boggess' helpmate this week.
"We are creating a dinner that really is a sponsorship type dinner," Boggess said. "People get a gourmet dinner and a jazz entertainment."
And they will be entertained with a presentation of why the band does what it does, Boggess said. Survivors will attend and get a chance to talk.
This weekend will mark not only the band's North Carolina performance debut, but also of a patient support group for juvenile cancer patients at Rex and UNC Hospitals "because currently there isn't one," Boggess said. A third of the money raised will go to the creation of the patient support group
The band will create a bank account that will allow volunteers to create a resource that is run by patients for patients, he said.
"We're really excited about this," Boggess said. "We can throw concerts, but by throwing the dinner, we will be able to raise extra funds and raise some awareness in the minds of people with resources that can help push things forward.
"And it's also a community event," Boggess said. "We have local businesses that have contributed either financially or in-kind. UNC and Rex are both co-sponsoring the event."
Boggess works at both UNC and Rex.
His third place of work is the studio he built in his house when the band was put together three years ago.
And the band was literally put together.
"What's interesting is that we really didn't find each other, we were put together, like monkeys," he said.
That is why all the members of the band are spread out around the United States, and they rehearse in front of the Web cams on their computers so they can see each other. When individual pieces prepared by each band member are ready, they are shared via the Internet. The only time all six get together to rehearse is hours before a concert.
It is difficult to work like that, Boggess acknowledged, but the thing that drives the band is the cause.
"And we have a lot of ambition," he said. "I'm not gonna tell you, that we are out to be a garage band. We're not. We want to be as popular as possible, because the more people know about us, the more people know about the message. That's why music has never taken a back seat."
Boggess said he wished "everybody lived down the street." But the distance makes the members of the band focused.
Or maybe it's their surgical skills and the doctoral appreciation of time that make them focused.
"When I was in bands before, we would get together to rehearse, and half the time was goofing off, and half the time -- whatever. And we don't have that luxury."
Boggess' schedule has no blanks. He had surgeries scheduled every day this past week, was flying to Houston, Texas, on Thursday, attending a conference on Friday before performing with the band in Carrboro tonight and in Raleigh Sunday night. "I took Monday off, though," he said, laughing.
"Somebody on the band said recently, 'Are we entering mainstream rock?' I said, 'I don't know, I just write songs that are fun, that people are gonna love live and they are gonna want to listen to driving down the road,'" Boggess said.
"There really isn't anything bad about the whole damn thing!"
