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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n