The MuSic Movement MS Benefit Stars 90s Grammy Award Winners Everclear And Ron Burgundy's

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — It all started last year over a glass of wine with two Evergreen Park women who had shared many rock ‘n roll adventures since they were students at Mother McAuley High School.

Shortly after getting engaged in 2013, Molly Sexton was handed the devastating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, a disease that most often affects people between the ages of 20 and 40. She was able to manage the disease until a setback in late 2024 impacted her ability to walk freely.

“She’s so resilient,” her fellow ‘Banger sister’ and best friend Eileen Ziesemer said. “She was a college athlete. She is the mother of third-grade twins and a first-grader and is a full-time public school teacher. She’s made big progress since through physical therapy.”

Wanting to build awareness of the unpredictable disease, Ziesemer and Sexton, both 43, lamented how most MS benefits were 5Ks or softball tournaments that excluded many with MS from participating. In their early 20s, the friends started running into each other at different shows, from cover bands at 115 Bourbon Street to the Dave Matthews Band.

“What can we do differently?” Sexton said. “You don’t need to walk or run to enjoy music.”

Their non-profit, The MuSic Movement, was born with a mission to rock out MS forever while having fun as a community. Their first rock benefit last year at Bourbon Street drew hundreds and raised $50,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The first MuSic Movement benefit at Bourbon Street in 2025.

“MS is different for every person,” Ziesemer said. “It’s a disease that can be very lonely and exhausting for patients, We want to create spaces for them to be their truest selves. A portion of funds raised goes to warriors who come to our events.

This Saturday, Feb. 7, the second MuSic In Movement benefit concert returns to 115 Bourbon Street, 3351 W. 115th St., Merrionette Park. The show runs from 7 to 11 p.m. with the Ron Burgundy's opening for 1990s Grammy Award-winning Everclear, a throwback to their earlier alternative rock exploits.

“The last show we saw together was the Barenaked Ladies last year at the Chicago Theater,” Ziesemer laughed.

The benefit also features an open bar with generous appetizers, split-the-pot and silent auction, including a Southwest Airlines trip for two to see Dave Matthews in Seattle, Chicago sports memorabilia, a Chicago staycation, and a chef’s table with Joe Flamm.

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease that impacts the central nervous system’s brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves and strikes patients in their 20s and 30s. Women are more than two to three times as likely as men to have relapsing-remitting MS, and it occurs in most ethnic groups; it is most common among white people of Northern European descent.

While most MS symptoms are mild, it can rear up and rob some people of their ability to write, speak, or walk, causing difficulty with or the inability to communicate effectively.

Headline act and Everclear lead singer, Art Alexakis, went public about his diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS, or RRMS, when fans thought Alexakis was drunk when he began frequently losing balance.

An early photo of 'the Banger Sisters,' Molly Sexton (left), diagnosed with MS in 2013 and Eileen Ziesemer, founders of 'The MuSic Movement.'

“It’s been almost three years since that diagnosis, and MS has become another part of my life,” Alexakis said in an open letter to fans. “I have done amazing things in that time – touring four full tours with Everclear, in addition to another 250-plus shows all around the world, and I’m still going strong. I have spent precious time with my family and friends; we bought a house that we love last year, and I have learned what the word ‘gratitude’ really means.”

General admission and ADA-accessible 21+ tickets to Saturday’s MuSic Movement show are $140 and can be purchased online through Feb. 6 or for $150 at the door.

“We want to give the MS community hope for the future and a full life, and to know they have a larger community that isn’t going to look at them like they have seven heads because they can’t walk,” Ziesemer said. “It’s a silent disease until it isn’t.”