Protopunk garage troglodytes the Furies have been absent from Vancouver stages for a year or more, but guitarist-vocalist Chris Arnett felt strongly enough about Russian punkers Pussy Riot’s prison sentence to agree to a benefit, with proceeds going to Amnesty International, at Iron Road Studios (383 Raymur Street) next Friday (September 7).

In a call to the Straight, Arnett—who is currently pursuing a PhD in anthropology at UBC—described Pussy Riot as “incredibly brave” and “inspiring”, and noted that “what they did so brilliantly was to expose the close connection between church and state in Russia, and by extension, almost any government in the world, including ours, where you have 5,000-year-old state ideologies continuing to foster patriarchy, inequality, oppression, death—all those wonderful things.”

Arnett has written a new song in Pussy Riot’s honour called “Prince Vlad”, which will be one of eight new songs showcased at the gig. Also on the bill are Dusty Exner, the AK-747s, the Dirt, and Duvallstar.