The Northwest music scene knows how to take care of its own. Our woodsy, insular corner of the country has nurtured some remarkably supportive and artsy communities - a minor empire of wide-eyed, open-hearted creatives, stretching from Bellingham's coven of enthusiastic house-show crust-punks, to as far South as the legendary DIY crowds of Portland and Olympia.

Thursday's "Team Natalie" benefit concert at the Loft on Cherry - featuring Kill Rock Stars alumni Bangs and The Need, with C Average and doom metal solo project Thrones - is bookended by two more shows boasting the same stellar line-up (The Team hits up Portland on July 23, and plays Seattle's Crocodile Café on July 21). Back in April, Bangs' Maggie Vail and friends deejayed a night at Portland hotspot Valentine's, with an eye towards raising more charitable donations. Why all the benevolent gigging? The focus of Vail and Co.'s altruism is former Kill Rock Stars employee Natalie Cox, a prominent figure in the Oly music scene who was diagnosed with angiosarcoma in July of last year. Angiosarcoma is a particularly aggressive and rare form of cancer (approximately 0.1 percent of all cancer cases in the world are angiosarcomas), which usually starts in the blood vessels and then spreads elsewhere.

Friends, family and musicians have rallied around Cox.

"Natalie is my oldest and closest friend," says Vail, who played bass in Bangs for seven years. "As soon as she told me she'd have to fund (her) treatment out of pocket I tried to think of the ways in which I could help."

Cox currently resides in the UK, and has had to seek funding outside the system to pay for alternative treatments and remedies. In the face of clinical pessimism, Cox is fighting to stay strong. In March, on her candid, eye-opening Team Natalie! blog, Cox wrote, "I am not a statistic, I am an individual. Many people have beat the odds and I intend on doing the same."

Cox and Vail have been close friends for 17 years, a considerable amount of time, even for a community as tight-knit as Olympia's music and arts scene. The interconnectivity of NW musical hotbeds naturally results in a wealth of support, love and sympathy during times of need. Rachel Carns, who drummed and sang in seminal queercore band The Need (and now serves as percussionist for Cloud Eye Control, among other things, including bottling her own kombucha), was also diagnosed with cancer last year. Carns triumphed over her disease, and, when she needed help paying for her sky-high medical bills, Olympia musicians and fans came to the rescue, wallets open and pliant. Carns worked under Cox back when Cox was manager of the bargain-priced, three-screen State Tri Theater. Vail says she "knew [Rachel] would love to help Natalie out."

Such outpourings of charity and support are, it bears repeating, not without precedent. When The Gossip's Beth Ditto - lacking health insurance - couldn't afford surgery to remove her gall bladder, she was similarly succored by her peers and fans.

"Many people that spent formative years in Olympia are all still connected to each other and there is a sense that we are there for each other in times of crisis," Vail says. Between manning the State Tri, organizing the first of the now-global Ladyfests, running a booking agency, working at KRS, and playing in a shit-ton of rad Northwest bands (Neon Panda, The Slatternlies, The Stowaways, The Old Haunts), Natalie Cox has accrued an Olympic-sized collection of friends and colleagues.

Hence the momentousness of the planned Team Natalie gigs. The Need haven't performed together in nine years; Bangs, six. Vail has promised die-hards that Bangs' setlist will be full of "old faves" and while band reunions, generally speaking, can be hit-or-miss (the spectrum ranges from My Bloody Valentine's impeccable victory lap to Pavement's endearingly sloppy comeback half-assery), it seems unlikely that any of Team Natalie's "players" will disappoint.

To learn more about Team Natalie and Cox's ongoing efforts to fight cancer, visit teamnataliecox.blogspot.com.

Team Natalie Benefit Show

With The Need, Bangs, C Average, Thrones,
Thursday, July 22, 5 p.m., all ages
The Loft on Cherry, 508 Legion Way, Olympia
theloftoncherry.com