[Invisible Children Music: We firmly believe that music has a necessary role in giving social movements tremendous amounts of momentum. It is a universal language, and at Invisible Children, it’s important for us to be a part of that language.]
West Hollywood got even more festive than normal on Saturday, December 15, when we hosted our 4th Annual Holiday Benefit Concert at the legendary Troubadour.
For the fourth time, we made the two-hour + atrocious traffic venture north to the cultural capital of California to celebrate the end of the year with a special holiday concert, with the proceeds benefiting our programs in Central Africa. This year, all of the money from ticket sales went to our Come Home For the Holidays campaign, an effort to increase HF radio coverage and defection fliers that will encourage LRA combatants to lay down their weapons and return home.
We were so excited to sell out the show and have an amazing lineup perform – DeVotchKa, White Arrows, Night Terrors of 1927, The Colourist, and Whispertown all donated their time to support our cause.
The evening kicked off with Whispertown, the project from LA darling Morgan Nagler that has earned some serious cred from years of touring and playing with some of the most respected acts in the game. She played select songs from her recent EP Parallel and some newer tracks from a recent writing session in New York City. Morgan had what might have been our favorite quote of the evening when she bantered, “We’re happy to be supporting humans who support humans.” And we’re happy you’re supporting humans who support humans, Morgan.
After the acoustic set from Whispertown, upcoming (and soon-to-be massive) band The Colourist took to the snowy stage to deliver an epic collection of tracks from their forthcoming debut album. Their sound literally filled the entire venue, and I’m going to go out on a very sturdy limb and say that the Orange County band won some new fans that evening. It also must be said – the chatter about how hardcore the drummer Maya Tuttle is was audible all over the place.
The third band up was the brand new (as in, this was their third show) Night Terrors of 1927. While this group is still a toddler in the music world, the individual musicians who make up the group are industry veterans. On a personal note, I have never fanboyed harder than I did over a certain member of this band whose name I will not reveal to maintain an ounce of integrity // cool. While the band only have two songs available online, they performed a set of cuts that will, presumably, be featured on a debut in 2013. Let’s just say Night Terrors of 1927 know what they’re doing – they do the dancey tracks, they have the rock numbers, and they have radio-ready hooks. The highlight of their impeccable set was the first single (available on iTunes now) “Dust and Bones.” If that’s not a rock anthem of 2013, I’m writing a really saucy op-ed come next December.
After Night Terrors of 1927 decimated the Troubadour, the Los Angeles bred/worldwide popular group White Arrows continued the heat, with lasers and fog and serious tunes. 2012 has been a hugely successful year for the group, and 2013 is shaping up to rocket them even further into the mainstream. The band blazed through cuts from their 2012 record Dry Land Is Not A Myth and even ventured into coverland with a seriously great take on Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.” White Arrows always show us the love, promoting us whenever they get the chance, so we were incredibly stoked they were able to play our show.
Closing out the night, DeVotchKa brought some serious class. The renown band played alongside a seven-piece string section to accompany their set – an insanely professional and engaging yet wildly raucous display of world-class musicianship. Not to mention, they brought out a Kazakstanian Opera singer named Timur to join them. Who does that? DeVotchKa does that. They rarely play venues as intimate as the Troubadour, so to see them perform to such a crowd was a truly special experience for so many of their dedicated fans – who came out in actual droves on Saturday.
The night could actually have not been better, and we owe all that to the incredible people who partnered with us. As always, we have massive thank yous to dole out – to KCRW for presenting the night, to Chop Shop Music for curating the talent, to SerialBox Presents for filming the performances (stay glued for those videos), to Caroline Borolla at Big Hassle for her donated PR work, to the Troubadour for letting us take over, to Jon Contino for designing posters we sold to benefit our programs, to Neopolitan for printing them, to Sahir Hanif from Masters of Maple for the drums, and to Seth Bartlette for his insane creativity in designing and executing the themed stage backdrop.
The best part – even better than one of the cast of ABC’s Revenge attending the gig (we’re big fans) – was the contribution we are now able to make to the Come Home For The Holidays campaign. Everything we do as Invisible Children Music focuses back on the mission at hand – stopping the LRA and rehabilitating the affecting areas. Everyone who came out to the sold-out show, you’re contributing to that, and we cannot thank you enough.
To view all the photos from the show, head to our Facebook at the link [HERE].
** All photos by Michael Allen Spear
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