Athens continues to mourn the loss of the beloved Georgia Theatre – but the people of the Classic City aren’t just moping around, reminiscing of all the good times the Theatre offered before the June fire ransacked the local music landmark. The music scene is in action to revive the legendary stage the town has come to cherish.

Tonight, Flicker Theatre and Bar is hosting a benefit concert that will raise funds for the reconstruction of the Georgia Theatre. The concert features mostly solo performances, including members from local groups Sleepy Horses and Helen, Dodge.

Mark Cunningham, a member of Helen, Dodge and Athens native, is performing a solo acoustic set.

“I grew up in Athens and I’ve been going to the Theatre forever,” Cunningham said. “[I just want] the Theatre to get back going again. That was everyone’s favorite venue and all of a sudden it was gone. [The fire] threw everybody out of the loop for the fall for bigger shows.”

This is not the first benefit Cunningham has planned; he has organized several benefit shows since the fire.

“It’s good to raise money for the Theatre, but the main thing is we want to expose people to the Athens music scene,” he said. “We need to reach [out] to students more than we have been. Back in the ’80s, you could go down Milledge or anywhere and walk up and see a great band. We want to try and get back to that.”

Ryan Hetrick of Helen, Dodge and Nic Goodson of Sleepy Horses will join Cunningham on the Flicker stage. Juan Villaveces, an avant-garde Latin rock performer, is also playing.

Villaveces and his family escaped the War on Drugs in Colombia, and he moved to Athens to become a musician.

“You can expect a good time and interesting music [at this show],” Villaveces said. “You can see how sounds are shaped and mixed and how music is made and created out of nothing. Since it’s improvisation, there is a level of excitement of what is possible.”

He added that the “audience is the most important part of the experience. Get out there and support the arts by taking part in it.”

With the Georgia Theatre out of commission this fall, Cunningham has turned to students as his target audience, playing gigs for fraternity and sorority parties and on campus to make up for the loss of the Theatre.

Daniel Peiken, a fellow organizer of the Georgia Theatre Phoenix Project, went to school in Athens in the early ’90s and recalls seeing some of his favorite bands on the Theatre’s revered stage.

“I saw Widespread Panic there all the time,” Peiken said. “I saw the Ramones and bands that are no longer together.”

Real estate professional by day and music photographer by night, Peiken shows his gratitude for the wealth of musical greats in the Athens music scene by sharing his photographs from shows by hundreds of local and national performers. Peiken’s Web site, www.athensrockshow.com, features pictures from shows by bands such as the Drive-By Truckers, Hope for Agoldensummer, Jump Little Children and Ween.

After hearing news of the fire, Peiken and Cunningham hit the ground running with preparations and planning for benefit shows.

“The day that the Theatre caught fire, Mark Cunningham called and said we had to get something together,” Peiken said. “And he got on Facebook right then and started the Georgia Theatre Phoenix Project. While it was still smoking, we were working on getting some benefits going.”