First Annual Nick Medvedeff Memorial Fundraiser Concert Happening February 7 at Kilowatt
When I first started this website, I was pretty damn nervous.
I wasn’t sure if anyone would take it seriously. I doubted if I would still be able to interview the musicians I spoke with in the past as a writer for the SF Examiner and SF Weekly. I wondered if I’d be able to keep up a regular posting schedule without the external pressures of an editor or publishing deadlines.
Fortunately, I had a ton of friends and professional colleagues offering me assurances and support, which made launching this project so much easier. Their backing gave me the confidence to step out on my own, and of all of my pals offering kind words, no one was more excited than my buddy Nick.
See, Nick had grand plans for Broken Dreams Club. When I first told him I was starting this music website, he immediately went into planning mode. By the time my initial story was posted, he was already plotting out the seeds for an annual Broken Dreams Club Music Festival.
Cribbing a little bit of the details of Noise Pop and Treefort Fest, Nick had dreams of a multi-day music fest taking places in small venues and clubs throughout San Francisco. He was thinking Thee Parkside, Bottom of the Hill, The Independent—all the amazing places we had seen shows together over the years.
He was already developing a roster of acts, too. One of his ideas was to get Free Energy (one of our favorite, long bygone bands) to reunite, and any Broken Dreams Club fest of course had to feature Christopher Owens.
By the end of these brainstorming sessions, he usually had an absurdly detailed gameplan for the festival established in his mind. It didn’t matter that Broken Dreams Club had no paid staff, a budget of $0 and zero experience planning out a single live show, let alone a multi-day festival. Those were all insignificant particulars to be dealt with later—the important part was having the vision, and hell yeah, did he have that covered.
Nick mostly conjured these ambitious offerings while he was housebound, struggling to adapt to the cocktail of treatments he was undergoing to treat his stage 4 colon cancer. Despite experiencing every sort of pain, Nick’s mind stayed sharp and he never wavered from his Broken Dreams Club goals. As the cancer progressed, he only tightened his focus, coming up with ever more inventive ideas for the fest, which grew to include a vinyl store pop-up and a comedy showcase.
On March 14, 2025, Nick finally succumbed to his illness. Sadly, he was never able to see his glorious concept of the Broken Dreams Club Music Festival come to fruition. Damn, it’s hard to type that sentence without tearing up.
While we weren’t able to succeed at that venture, we will never forget Nick or his fearless outlook on life. On Saturday, February 7, we will honor his memory by hosting the First Annual Nick Medvedeff Memorial Fundraiser Concert. The show will take place at Kilowatt—exactly the kind of small, wonderfully grimy music club that Nick loved patronizing—and will feature performances from Luke Sweeney, Lucky and Torpedo Wharf.
Outside of spending time with his wonderful wife Silvia and their adorable, precocious daughter Aurora, nothing brought Nick more joy than watching live music. I’m confident that this show—with all his friends gathered, having fun and listening to great tunes—is how he would like to be remembered.
The show will run from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are available to purchase at the Kilowatt webpage here. There are multiple tiered payment options, and revenue from the ticket sales will benefit the college fund for Aurora as well as UCSF’s Young On-set Colorectal Cancer Program. There will also be posters for sale (designed by Galine Tumasyan), with proceeds further benefitting those two causes.
We are specifically calling this the first annual fundraiser concert because we are all fully committed to making this a yearly event. It’s our small way of supporting Nick’s family while keeping his memory alive for as long as we are.
And who knows, maybe this fundraiser concert will one day be the centerpiece of a Broken Dreams Club Music Festival. I still know absolutely nothing about how to pull something like that off, but an utter lack of experience never deterred Nick. In fact, I’m already thinking up new additions to Nick’s original vision. This first show is just the beginning of something bigger—a sentiment I know that Nick—someone who always dreamed big— would appreciate.
Show Details:
Luke Sweeney with Lucky and Torpedo Wharf
Where: Kilowatt
When: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m., Saturday, February 7
Tickets: $13.39 - $70.04, available here.