The photo is of my godson and his dad playing together along with Don Was and a couple of other young musicians at an AIDS benefit held last night at the Roxy on Sunset. I went with a determination to support the event, developed and produced by a group of teenagers at their school, but with a little gritting of teeth at the thought of sitting through endless jam sessions from 14+15 year-old guitar-hero wannabes. Well, wasn't I surprised! Mostly, because these young people were a musical revelation. They occasionally had support from some major musical partners (Don Was, Glenn Frey), a guest with a couple of hit songs--Daniel Powter, but mainly it was just the kids doing their thing, and it was good, really good, there were some really gifted musicians playing on-stage and giving the professionals a run for their money. There were also some adventurous musical choices--Steely Dan (I know?! Kid Charlemagne--not the easiest song to play), Stevie Wonder (I Wish--likewise on the difficulty scale), The Doors, as well as the usual twelve-bar blues numbers that get the audience rocking.
It was definitely an evening of classic rock music--there was one DJ act--local party-animal, Cisco Adler, who offered up some nice, melodic, old-school call and response hip-hop, but guitars and long hair ruled the evening.
I had a great conversation with Bob Clearmountain--one of the best mixers around--about music--Bowie's Let's Dance, one of his 'mix-jobs,' was playing as we spoke. It turned out that he recently mixed the Rolling Stones documentary Shine A Light, which I have seen twice now--once for fun, the second time for the theology and pop music class. He said that he thought Silver and Gold, Keith Richards tender acoustic number in the film, was his favourite musical moment, and I have to agree.
The Roxy is a landmark gig in Los Angeles. For years it was the debut venue in this city--everybody played there---AC/DC even played there back in the day when we first toured America. Now it feels as though it is locked in a bit of a time-warp, especially because the Rainbow is still chugging away next door--you can still see big-hair metal-heads in large numbers hanging out there--it's a trip, nice to visit but somehow not the nexus of the music universe anymore.
There was a serious issue--AIDS, particularly as it plays out among teenagers both here in the US and around the world and the group of teens who organized the event had obviously done their homework--both about the issue, but also about presentation--videos, written materials, sign-ups etc. It was quite an inspiring night actually, and the music was fun.
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