Not sure I got your needs right, as I don't work with DBIx::Class, but is there any reason you can't use a CTE (common table expression) in your query?

Something like (for Postgresql) :

with t1 as (SELECT MAX(event_id) as max_event_id, name FROM events GRO
+UP BY name) 
SELECT * FROM events INNER JOIN t1 ON t1.max_event_id = events.event.i
+d;
[download]

that would give you the list of objects directly