It was more than 18 months ago that The Minus Scale played its final show at the Dover Brick House in August 2009. Now, a full decade after the Seacoast band first came together, they’re returning to the stage for a one-night reunion. 

And they’re not alone. Former area rock bands The Human Flight Committee and Arms Against a Sea also will reunite for the concert, which will raise money for The Paddy Murphy Fund. Current acts Too Late the Hero and Cameron Gray will round out the bill. The all-ages show takes place on Sunday, March 27.

“It’s gonna be really fun to play those songs again, and cool to just hang out with this group of people at the Brick House,” said Minus Scale bassist AJ Tobey, who organized the show.

It took a tragic situation to bring these bands back together for a single night. All proceeds from the concert will go to former Minus Scale member Paddy Murphy, who has been battling pancreatitis since December. 

Although not an original band member, Murphy played keyboard and guitar for The Minus Scale for more than two years. He was hospitalized a few weeks after losing his job at a Dover restaurant that recently closed. He’s making steady progress in his recovery, but, with no health insurance, the bills are rapidly piling up.

Tobey, who works for Portsmouth-based music promotion company Flea Marketing, decided to throw a benefit show at the Brick House. He roped in fellow Minus Scale members Ryan Lavasseur, Pat Griffin, and Chris Delisle, who had been plotting a reunion show, anyway.

“From there, it kind of turned into, ‘Well, it’d be fun if we played with bands that we used to play with when Paddy was in the band and try to surround him with that group of friends,’” Tobey said. “Just try to bring that energy back from four years ago. Everybody take a step back in time.”

The Human Flight Committee and Arms Against a Sea, both of whom frequently shared bills with The Minus Scale, quickly signed on. Too Late the Hero, a group still active around New England, requested to play, as well. Cameron Gray, who played in several bands throughout the 2000s, signed up to open the show.

“The whole deal, top to bottom, is very nostalgic and really exciting,” Tobey said. 

Members of The Minus Scale have spent the last few weeks reconstructing their old set list and rehearsing their songs. The process has brought them back to a time when the band was just beginning to build a following and headline shows.  

“That was a period of a lot of excitement, recording those records at that time and just really getting into what we were doing,” Tobey said. “It’s just going to be great to bring all that back. It feels like forever ago, really.”

It’s a bitter-sweet reunion for The Minus Scale crew, though. Less than two months after Murphy was hospitalized, original bassist and founding member Greg Lacroix was killed in a car accident in Florida, where he was living with his wife of less than a year. It’s been a trying time for Tobey, who graduated from Exeter High School with Lacroix and lived with him in college.

Although The Minus Scale formed only a decade ago, the local music scene—and the music industry at large—has changed immensely in that time. Tobey said fewer young people go out to live shows these days, and even fewer form bands. People are increasingly unwilling to pay for live music or physical CDs, leaving musicians with no way to make a buck.

“It’s this whole new culture of teaching kids that music doesn’t have value and it’s not worth buying a record you can download for free and there’s no point in going to a show if you have to pay to get in,” he said.

The show in Dover, though, will celebrate the scene past and present. Tobey said everyone involved, including Murphy, is looking forward to the event.

“The cherry on top is this attitude that Paddy’s come out with in the last couple of weeks,” Tobey said. “He’s excited, he’s anxious, he’s asking question about it. He seems beside himself about it.”

Doors open at 5 p.m. on March 27 at the Dover Brick House, 2 Orchard St., Dover, 603-749-3838. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 day of show, available at Bull Moose in Portsmouth or at www.doverbrickhouse.com. People can also donate checks to The Paddy Murphy Fund, c/o TD Bank, 16 Fresh River Road, Epping, NH 03042. For more information, call Christina Duane at TD Bank at 603-679-8738.