In The Spirit

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 27, 2006 6:25PM

We’re sick of hearing about good people getting killed by hit and run drivers. Dan Parry was familiar to many as a cracking mod and soul DJ who tried to get everyone into the party. We didn’t realize that behind the scenes he was also traveling down to New Orleans post-Katrina to help people out, or that he had been an EMT, or that he was hoping to become a firefighter. Learning all those things, though, just makes us all the angrier that he was killed leaving The Continental early Christmas morning. According to The Tribune, the two men that hit the car Parry was in fled the scene, but were later arrested, and the driver was drunk as hell. It’s just not fair.

Friends of Parry’s have organized a fundraiser for his family tonight at Sonotheque, in hopes of defraying some of the funeral costs. As Parry’s friend Erin Johnson says, “This is important guys. Funeral costs can exceed $10,000 and Dan would not want to burden his family. Even if you cannot stay, please come by and donate.”

We’d write more about this, but we’re just too saddened by the circumstances, and sickened that it seems to keep happening to the best and the brightest within Chicago’s music scene.