The Concert for Autism, a yearly series of shows benefiting the Desert Autism Foundation, is back for its 19th edition.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, the kickoff event will commence at The Dune Room; the Acoustic Afternoon for Autism is on Sunday, Oct. 4, at Coachella Valley Brewing Company. The lead-up event is on Saturday, Oct. 10, also at Coachella Valley Brewing Company, and the main event is on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Big Rock Pub. (Full disclosure: I will be performing at both the kickoff show and the main event.) More than 40 acts will perform across the four events, including organizer Josh Heinz’s band Blasting Echo, which hasn’t played a show since 2023.
“It’s great that Blasting Echo is finally going to get back onstage again,” Heinz said during a recent phone interview. “We’ve been having rehearsals, and they’ve been great. … We took some time off after we played the 2023 concerts, and different things were going on in each member’s lives. Linda (Lemke Heinz) and I have our own thing, and then Joe (Dub Wallace) and Mondo (Armando Flores) each have their own thing, and we were still in touch this entire time.”
Blasting Echo’s performance on Saturday, Sept. 26, at The Dune Room may be one of the band’s last.
“We wanted to definitely play the benefit again, but I think there is an endpoint in the future,” Heinz said. “What that endpoint exactly is, I can’t 100% say. The benefit has been so important to us, because Blasting Echo began and played the 2009 benefit, the second benefit.”
On top of organizing the event every year, Heinz always performs in some capacity. This year, he’ll be playing with Blasting Echo at the kickoff, and Dufreign at the main event. While he admits that both performing and organizing can be tricky, it’s more of a challenge for his wife, co-organizer and Blasting Echo bandmate Linda Lemke Heinz.
“Linda coordinates all the volunteers and coordinates the silent auctions and coordinates her students,” Heinz said. “At the main event, we have a time where Linda’s students … who are on the spectrum and have other special needs, perform, which is usually the most moving part of the evening. … It’s really a lot for her, because she’s coordinating volunteers, the silent auction, the kids and the young adults performing, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, by the way, will you take 35 minutes out of your busy time and come up here and play keyboards real quick?’”
The kickoff event, which usually took place at the Big Rock Pub or Coachella Valley Brewing Company in the past, shifted this year to The Dune Room.
“The Dune Room has been very supportive of it,” Heinz said. “Noe Gutierrez, who is booking acts and shows there, he’s been a longtime friend of ours, and a supporter of the benefit and the bands we’ve been in, and it was kind of a no-brainer. We need more venues here in the valley, so it’s great to have another venue that wants to be supportive.”
The Big Rock Pub is now the home of the main event, after the Tack Room Tavern was sold to new owners in 2025.
“The Tack Room was great, and it was kind of home,” Heinz said. “Of course, they went through their change, and fortunately, the Big Rock stepped up and has been very supportive. Jeff Mazer, who helps run the audio and the lights and stuff, and has done that for years along with Greg Little, runs the Big Rock stage, so he was always prepared to make that shift. … It’s now become the home of the main event for sure.”
Some might see 18 years of shows and more than $150,000 raised for the Desert Autism Foundation as a job well-done, but Heinz said there’s much more to do.
“What keeps me going is knowing that we’re helping individuals on the spectrum and families and caregivers who take care of those individuals,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a blend of my passion for music and then my passion for the cause, and I love the bands. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, but I know that when I’m walking around during the shows, and I’m hearing bands that I enjoy, I think about, ‘All the work has paid off to these moments.’ We’re raising funds; we’re raising awareness; and hopefully we’re making a difference.”
Heinz and co. continue to make small tweaks to make the event better every year.
“We have the sensory tent, and we last year came up with the idea of having a gaming tent, and now (our son Jack) wants to add a video element of maybe a TV with a DVD player,” Heinz said. “Some individuals on the spectrum enjoy watching certain DVDs or certain shows or whatever, and maybe we have that available this year. Those little things always turn out to be great ideas, and that makes it a more welcoming environment for individuals on the spectrum, and for the family members.”
Heinz said he doesn’t see an end in sight for his involvement with the fest.
“I don’t see me stopping, because this is our thing,” he said. “It brings so much awareness, which is the biggest thing, and it makes a difference. If I all of a sudden stopped it, No. 1, that’s the only fundraiser the Desert Autism Foundation has, so that kind of needs to keep going, but No. 2, I don’t want to (stop). I’m 51 now, but I don’t want to act like I’m 71. … The hope is that we, as we get older, find somebody who understands what we do and understands the passion we have for it, and then says, ‘Hey, I’ll step in and I’ll start helping more, and I can take the reins from you eventually.’”
The headlining slot at the main event is usually reserved for an iconic act—like John Garcia, a cornerstone desert band like Giselle Woo and the Night Owls, or the reunion of an old band like The Pedestrians. But this year, Space in Sound, a band that’s only a year old, will close out the main event.
“I’m excited for that, because outside, you’re going to have the last three bands be your older legacy bands—Dufreign and then The Hellions and then Mighty Jack,” Heinz said. “I’m grateful that Mighty Jack’s playing this year, because they haven’t played the event in nine years. … Space and Sound is a fun band with reggae influences, and so they’ll be a fun band to have (inside), and hopefully that will expose them to an older crowd that’s never seen them, and they’re going to have a great time. That’s been the great thing about the main event—we have the younger bands start in the day, and I’m telling you, every year, every single band that plays, I get people coming up to me, like, ‘Where did you find that band?’ … Getting that exposure for these bands is very gratifying.”
Heinz already has his sights set on a landmark 20th Concert for Autism in 2027.
“I’ve had conversations with some of our larger, more world-known bands, and some of those legendary desert bands, about performing,” he said. “How we’re going to do that, I’m not sure, because the main event is just that one night, and if you get a whole bunch of legendary bands, then you’ve got to cut out younger bands that deserve a chance to support the cause and want to support the cause, and we want to give them voices and opportunities for people to hear them. … Everybody donates their talents and their set for free, and it’s great, and it’s beautiful, but if they’ve got a booking agency over in Europe that’s like, ‘Hey, man, the time to come out here is in October,’ I can’t be like, ‘Hey, don’t do that.’ I want to make it happen, and we’ll see how it goes beyond the 20th.”
The Concert for Autism kickoff event takes place at 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26, at The Dune Room, at 82707 Miles Ave., in Indio, and is followed by three October events. A donation is requested at the events. For more information, visit concertforautism.com.
