ALONG COMES MARY

After surviving Inauguration Day and admiring all of those out in the Marches today, I have been thinking alot about the incredible Love Trumps Hate benefit evening I was able to attend last weekend at The Bootleg Theatre.

While I definitely had considered going out to a march myself, I will be honest: The crowds intimidated me. Los Angeles alone is said to have over 745,000 passionate citizens out today. I have felt concerned for all of my friends attending today, but, thankfully, it looks to be going down beautifully and making history.

Love Trumps Hate was much more suited for me. An incredible event conceived by A&R Director of Angry Mob Music, Ralph Torrefranca, and Talent Buyer Kyle Wilkerson of Bootleg Theater, Love Trumps Hate was a powerful event of music, socializing and fun while coming together to raise awareness to very important causes and to show people that it is important to donate and be involved with organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, the non-profits, respectively, that  funds were raised for this evening.

The silent auction was a music collector’s dream; signed memorabilia from Leon Bridges, Young The Giant, Family of The Year, Mac DeMarco, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Counting Crows and several others, while I saw many nerd-ing out over the possibility of getting backstage access and concert tickets from Fitz and The Tantrums. I tried my luck at some raffle tickets for the Amoeba Music gift cards.

The first band up was Expo 86, a Silverlake favorite specializing in many cover songs from popular bands today. They had dynamic energy and I appreciated what the lead vocalist had to say as he looks ahead at our next four years; as he spoke from the heart that we will survive and its times like this that show we come together as one. It was extremely comforting to have the audience shouting along that we will be ok in the USA.

An artist that is now on my radar is Nick Waterhouse. Having not heard of Waterhouse’s music, I stepped into his set with no idea what to expect, and loved what I was hearing. Combining a great mix of blues, jazz, rhythm and some rock-pop, Orange County native Waterhouse gave his all during his songs and had great chemistry with the filled theatre.

Following some more great performances from James Supercave and the very cryptically intriguing YACHT,  final performers of the night, Silversun Pickups, graced the stage for their acoustic ending to the evening. Radio friendly and always chromatic, Silversun Pickup’s are a real throw back to the shoe gazing, dreamy style of music that often brings to mind My Bloody Valentine or The Smashing Pumpkins.

Having not heard them acoustic, I was interested to hear some of their classic work stripped down. As they launched into one of their most beloved tunes, Panic Switch, Bassist, Nikki Monninger, was left to keep the intro loop going as the always humorous lead vocalist, Brian Aubert, decided to disappear into the crowd!

Such a huge thank you to all those who came together to make Love Trumps Hate the sold out success it was. Lets continue to keep our voices heard and support important causes, as we enter new territory these next few years. xo