Dec 10, 2013 Save Music in Chinatown 1 Recap
As Sunday’s benefit gig to raise money for music education at my daughter’s elementary school was wrapping up, a couple of guests struck up a conversation with me. It turned out they are starting up a foundation to help the Chinese community in L.A. as well, and were checking out our event to see if they could learn anything from my wife and me. As a newcomer to fundraising, my only advice was to have a good image. The photo of Eloise jumping in the hallway outside her kindergarten classrooms is one of the best shots I’ve ever taken. Everyone loves it.
Beyond that, we relied on friends in music, friends in art, friends in Chinatown (including other parents and school staff). Music education is something that musicians are likely to support and the neighborhood has a great tradition of punk rock. It also has an art gallery scene. Neither the music nor art scenes mingle much with the locals, but of course they would help out the mostly immigrant kids at Castelar Elementary School if they were given opportunities. That’s where my wife and I came in, providing bridges between the worlds via DIY concerts at art galleries.
Human Resources was a kung-fu movie theater and a porno theater before it became an art space. Now it’s a great spot for a show. I love how Bob Forrest strolled in with his family in tow and guitar on his shoulder, totally casual and friendly and ready to go. He played acoustic treatments of songs from his bands Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief, in addition to Bob Dylan and Replacements covers that were mashed up. Between songs, he talked a lot about the power of music, art, activism, and community between songs–not to mention the challenge of playing his songs about addiction and politics at a matinee with kids present.
One of my many favorite moments came when Bob turned “Sammy Hagar Weekend” into “Doc McStuffins Weekend,” transforming the anthem about cruisin’ and boozin’ into a piece about parents who watch cartoons even after their children go to sleep. Wow. He also signed a small stack of books for the raffle, which was much appreciated.
Afterward, a friend asked me if the raffle was added to attract people to the show. That would have been smart but it was actually added to give guests a way to donate extra money. Coming from a punk-informed background, I wanted the cost of admission to be reasonable (12-15 bucks). But why not allow supporters a chance to donate more–especially since Wendy and I happen to have creative friends who are musicians (Bobb Bruno from Best Coast, Hector Penalosa for The Zeros), artists (Susie Ghahremani, Stella Lai, Shizu Saldamando), skateboarders (Justin Reynolds, Mike Vallely), filmmakers (Daniel Wu), and entrepreneurs (Julia Huang, Una Kim from Keep, Mark Trombino from Donut Friend) who can donate cool goods and services? I also canvassed the neighborhood, and was stoked that key locals kicked in: Philippe, Pho 87, Chego, Via Cafe, Realm. And then there were Scoops, Architecture for Dogs, The Chinese American Museum, The Dodgers, Donovan McNabb… We received a lot of help from friends.
My new pals in Lucky Dragons were next to play. Their electronic sounds seem challenging at first but then invite participation via custom-made instruments. Perfect for the circle of kids that sat in front, and it must have blown their minds when they became part of the unapologetically experimental and conceptual yet completely musical and fun–an education on its own.
It was just a few weeks ago that Deradoorian was playing large venues while on tour with Animal Collective, so it was cool that she would contribute to our humble, no-frills gig. Her music features rather sophisticated and delicate rhythms but it’s also very raw and primal, and sounded gorgeous in the big box of a room. A friend’s toddler son was particularly smitten by Angel and her sister Arlene’s set, and teetered dangerously close to the wires and instruments adding potential for disaster/extra fun to the moment.
There were probably between 150-200 people in the audience, which was pretty great considering I didn’t see any support from the weeklies, radio stations, or local organizations or politicians that I reached out to. Can’t really blame the media or public offices since we we hatched the idea and started planning about a month ago. Next time I’ll do a better, earlier job of promoting but the comfortably filled crowd reflects the power of Facebook sharing, Internet radio interviews (Los Angeles Nista and Crystalline Morphologies), a handful of friendly websites, and email.
The final band was LA Fog, which plays a sort of post punk jazz. It was a rad way to wind down the show–especially since they’re fixtures at the venue who happen to be great musicians and lovely people. A very cool combo, and I loved the Bob Marley treatment that kicked off their set. And did I mention that Gabie and Evan from KCHUNG played a lot of my favorite vintage L.A. punk songs between sets as well?
Afterward, my friend Eric Kim at Human Resources suggested that we have our next Save Music in Chinatown show there as well. Sounds good to me. Although the amount of money we brought in is laughable in the world of fundraising, the building of awareness, momentum, and community is priceless.
Who’s down for another show in February? How can we make it better? Anyone else want to participate? Let me know!
Clockwise from top left: Gocco prints for sale; my family with artist Vicki Berndt; musician Mike Magrann from CH3, Deradoorian’s biggest fan, Imprint’s own Julia Huang with Martha and Renzei; Architecture for Dogs raffle winner and Castelar kids. (Thanks to Ben Clark for many of the photos.)