Quad-Cities Music Scene Bids Farewell To Molly Durnin With Massive Show April 15
Mike Moncada and Jambrella are throwing a major music party on Thursday, April 15 for Molly Durnin at one of her regular haunts,
Mike Moncada and Molly Durnin celebrate at the first Jambrella.
Eleven17 at 1117 Mound St., Village of East Davenport.
Several local bands will perform from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Lobo’s Salsa will donate all of their sales then to Durnin, who is leaving the Q-C April 17 to move back to Charleston, S.C.
“It’s gonna be really big,” Moncada said. “We’re trying to send her off such that she doesn’t want to leave. Plus, I’m gonna slash the tires on her car so she can’t go anywhere, right?”
Durnin moved to the Q-C in 2017 from Charleston, S.C., and she’s moving back there, since it’s a busier (and warmer) music destination.
“My performance last night at the very first Jambrellla Productions event, I have no words,” she posted on Facebook after the first festival at The Mound. “The energy in that room was unmatched…..I gave it all I got, left it all on the stage. THESE are the moments I live for. This is why
Molly Durnin at the first Jambrella.
I love music.”
For the past 10 years, Durnin has worked as a full-time touring musician, but 2020’s Covid pandemic put a stop to that – as it’s decimated the careers of so many artists nationwide.
“It was the worst year of my life,” the 32-year-old Moliner said the week before Jambrella, noting her gigs were shot for most of the year, between mid-March and the fall. “It left me completely confused, hopeless as to what to do in my life. For a lot of us musicians, it’s not just performing, it’s our life. It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle. It was
Durnin will move back to Charleston, S.C., after an April 15 sendoff show in her honor.
traumatizing.”
Moncada announced the Jambrella fundraising total at the end of her live gig at Eleven17 in the Village on Feb. 28. He also sang with her Sunday after she asked.
“She’s done the same thing for me. That’s the whole point of community,” Moncada said. “A lot of us have forgotten; we have each other to lean on. You don’t have to lose faith and hope so bad that you take your own life. We’re here – lean on us. The one thing we learned during Covid is, we’re all we’ve got.”
At the end the long Friday night show, Durnin surprised Moncada with a founder’s plaque (that says Jambrella Productions, the date and his name), and she said this is just the beginning. “It really is,” he said later.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/jambrellaproductions.
