Bloomberg- Last month, at a basement bar in a New York Cajun restaurant, Chris Heasman of Lazard Asset Management and about 20 other hedge-fund executives dressed down in jeans and T-shirts spent the night belting out songs by the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and U2.
Some blasted guitars, while others played drums or keyboards on standards like “Gimme Shelter” and “Sympathy for the Devil” for an appreciative crowd of financial wizards.
They weren’t just unwinding from a hectic day of managing money for some of America’s wealthiest people. They were members of amateur rock bonds competing for spots in tonight’s fundraising concert at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill to help disabled children in poor countries get corrective surgery or prosthetic limbs.
“It’s a nice diversion from the day-to-day grind,” said Subscribers lead singer Timothy Wheeler, a commercial bankruptcy lawyer at Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, New Jersey, whose clients include hedge funds. “It’s great to get together with the gang and play music.”
More than 25 hedge-fund bands asked to play at the fourth annual “Rocktoberfest.” Seven bands and a dozen acoustic performers were finally chosen to perform at the event, which hopes to raise $350,000 for the nonprofit group A Leg to Stand On.
