Thurs. Dec. 17

Promoter Billy Ruane threw a successful multi-band benefit-bash for cancer-stricken guitarist Stephen Fredette (in photo, best known for playing in Scruffy the Cat, a current member of Pony) last month and singer-guitarist Hilken Mancini (of Fuzzy) is throwing a "Fuzzy Christmas" benefit-party for Fredette at the Plough & Stars Thursday Dec. 17. It portends to be an evening of smart pop-rock. Says Mancini: "It's a nostalgic excuse to see people we haven't seen, and not unlike a class reunion- except that we are playing music with friends that we have toured, performed or recorded with throughout the years.  It's just a bonus to be able to give the money to Stephen . Not sure if he will be able to attend this year- but one time he did a performance of John Prine's "Christmas Time In Jail" when we held an Xmas show. I quote the end lyrics: 'It's Christmas in Prison , there'll be music tonight/I'll probably get homesick, I love you, goodnight." Mancini and (Buffalo Tom bassist) Chris Colbourn, who've recorded together as a duo, are performing. Also on the bill: Bill Janovitz (Buf Tom singer-guitarist) & Tanya Donelly (ex-Belly, Throwing Muses), Other Girls (members of Andrea Gillis Band/Muck & the Mires/Raging Teens), Dylan in the Movies, Jim Buni's Beatbox band, Pat McDonald, Audrey Ryan, Heavy Stud, and Stephen's brother, David Fredette, who also plays in the Upper Crust. It's emceed by JSInk pal Tom Kielty and starts at 10:30. Cover: $8.
  
    Fredette, now 53, was diagonsed with mantle cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma in August of 2007. He's being treated at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has undergone six rounds of chemotherapy and had a bone marrow transplant in April - the donor being, he believes, "a 20-year-old woman from Europe, probably German, meaning I'm genetically female as my blood has XX chromosomes. I'm a chimera ... One good thing about chemotherapy, you have a clean slate. You can read things you read two months before" and not remember them. "One small boon." Fredette, who used to work in a book store, has thousands of books as companions.
  "The bone marrow transplant was succesful and anti-climactic at the same time," he says. "I'm considered a whiz kid by my doctors. In a normal transplant, the body may reject the organs. In a bone marrow transplant, the transplant can reject you and there are horrible ways it manifests itself. And I have not had have a trace of that. It occurs in 80 percent of the cases, but I'm OK." He immediately jokes that now that's he's stated that, he's opened the door to a world of bad, coming any moment now.
  "It's an incredibly rare form of cancer," Fredette continues. "They can rid of it, but it tends to come back right away. About 3000 people a year get it in this country. It's pesky. I came in on this cusp where a lot of work had been done [treating it] so I'm sort of breaking ground."
   As you might be able to tell, the rocker has not lost his sense of humor. It's a coping mechanism, of course, but it's always been part of Fredette's life, so he's basically applied it to a situation he describes as being "inconvienced and annoyed."
   How so? Well, he's on these immuno-supressant drugs until next April and until then he's essentially quarrantined to his Hull home. He doesn't even go to the attic or basement. Too much dust, dirt or mildew potential and a possibility of contracting a disease he can't fight off.
    "I'm under restrictions," he says. "I have a far more effective bracelet than most crimials do. If I were to go out and pick up a stray virus, I would die. I can go our for a nice walk on the beach or in the woods, but I can't go shopping or to a club."
  And that makes him feel ... "All cancer and no play makes Jack a dull boy," he says paraphrasing Stephen King's famous line from "The Shining," as memorably typed out by psychotic novelist Jack Nicholson in the movie.
  So, Stephen won't be playing with his band the Ponys at the the Plough. He recommends people greet him through his brother, guitarist Dave Fredette, who will be there.
   How does he feel? "When I was first diagnosed there was a lot of pain. At the worst, I had my spleen removed a year ago - it had become really cancerous - and I was not feeling really good and lost tons of weight. Now, physically, I feel absolutely normal. I feel great."

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