Local Musician Fights Cancer with Benefit Concert

Four days after a clean scan, Dan Stock had multiple, softball-sized tumors in his lower body.

He began an aggressive radiation treatment, spending one week in the hospital and one week at home. That was about nine months ago.

Now, there’s not much doctors can do, Stock said. 

“It’s a lot of day-to-day pain management,” he said. “But I’m certainly still on the positive train.” 

So positive, in fact, that during treatment at Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, he thought about giving back. 

Stock, 37, has been a producer and engineer at Uptown Recording since 2001. He’s also a singer and guitarist in the hard rock band Bruiser and plays almost every musical instrument a person can name. 

So he decided to use his connections to put on a concert that benefits the cancer center. 

“I wanted to create a big show that has the bands that really trusted me and my direction,” Stock said. “Sort of a ‘thank you, thank me,’ and also give thanks to this cancer center that’s been working to save my life for the last 10 years or so. Some people write a check after they die. This is something for me that I can do now.”

Staying true to the music theme, DANSTOCK will feature four bands Stock produced at Uptown Recording.

“We’ve never seen an outpouring like this,” close friend Margaret O’Conor said. “It came together so fast, it was insane. Everybody that’s ever known Dan is coming out with everything they can.” 

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The concert is a nod to Stock's nine-year cancer battle—one that perhaps, will bring hope to others diagnosed with the disease.

In 2004, doctors found a small tumor on his lower back. Stock had surgery and thought his health problems were over.

Years went by, and he and his wife Angie had a daughter. Now 4-year-old Charlie loves to play any sport with a ball and the family can often be seen outdoors or at Chase Park. 

In 2010, the musician had a seizure. While in the hospital, doctors discovered an egg-sized tumor on his brain. When the second tumor was removed, it tested positive for melanoma. 

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer, but it can also form internally. The disease is becoming more common in people under 40, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

One year later, a third tumor was found, this time attached to a small node on Stock’s spinal column. He went through radiation in the fall of 2011.

The family had about five months of relief, and when Stock went in for a scan in early April, it came back clean. 

“About four to five days after, it exploded into the legs, muscle tissue, abdomen and femur,” he said. “I had softball-sized tumors grow in my thighs. It came out of nowhere.” 

Stock started a therapy meant to slow the growth of the tumors and get them to a workable size. He’d spend seven days in the hospital, a week at home and seven days back at the hospital. 

“He’s done things in treatment that people never get through, in terms of aggressive cancer,” O’Conor said. “This guy was a monster; he went through everything.” 

O’Conor met Stock in 2008 through a friend when she sat on the advisory council at Chase Park.

The families also have kids one month apart. Stock’s daughter Charlie and O’Conor’s son Shea started taking classes, and playing with each other at the park. 

O’Conor describes Stock as a hardcore father, protective of his daughter even through treatment.

“Through this, he’s just been super strong and this concert was about really leaving a legacy with music. He’d never really come across a benefit for cancer that was rooted in rock,” O’Conor said. 

The show is Feb. 7 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets can be purchased here and are $20 for general admission $100 for VIP.

Bands include Board of Governors, Farkus, Nature Show and Carta Marina. Stock has worked with all four bands at Uptown Recording and describes their music as solid, original rock, without touching the metal genre. 

“The concert is to give back to the center and have some fun with my bands,” Stock said. “I’m just hoping to have a good time and keep living.”