SHORT TAKES : Rock Band Supports Santa Cruz

The venerable rock group Crosby, Stills & Nash brought music back to quake-damaged downtown Santa Cruz in a benefit concert that raised at least $21,000 for county relief agencies.

The trio raised spirits and brought 800 concert-goers to their feet with two sets of old favorites at the Catalyst nightclub Thursday evening.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash refrained from making benefit speeches, letting their guitars do the talking. But Nash introduced a Crosby solo of “Almost Cut My Hair” by saying, “If he can make it back from where he’s been, Santa Cruz can make it back.” Nash’s remark was apparently in reference to Crosby’s well-publicized problems with drugs.

The concert concluded with three encores that got the crowd, a mix of yuppies and yippies, dancing and singing. Nash dedicated “Our House” to the Cooper House, the former county courthouse built in the 1890s and redone as a mixed commercial structure. It was severely damaged in the quake and had to be razed.

“I went to visit an old friend while I was here, and it was no longer there,” he said.

Nash arranged the benefit with longtime tour manager R. Mac Holbert, a Santa Cruz native.

“If there’s such a thing as altruism, then this is definitely a show of it,” Holbert said.

Corporate sponsors bought 125 tickets at $100 each, and the rest went for $15.