If you didn't spend all your money on a Rapture bunker‚ there are a few great benefit shows coming up in NYC you should know about. There are worse things that you could do with your time and money than see a great show and help some folks out at the same time.
Tomorrow night (May 24th) at Brooklyn Bowl‚ the city's fanciest bowling alley/music venue is the True People's Ceremony for Tohoku Disaster put together by MMW's longtime Japanese promoter Taichi Komatsubara. The show boasts a ridiculous lineup and all proceeds will go towards relief efforts in Japan via the Think the Earth Project. Here are the details:
8:30 Mago (John Medeski & Billy Martin)
9:00 Medeski‚ Martin & Mike Rivard
9:15 Club d'Elf w/ Hassan Hakmoun‚ Brahim Fribgane‚ Medeski‚ Mat
Maneri‚ Steven Bernstein‚ Rivard & Dean Johnston
10:00 Marshall Allen
10:45 Marco Benevento
11:30 Wicked Knee
12:15 Collaboration with various artists
Next on my radar is a benefit for another longtime MMW associate‚ producer/engineer Scotty Hard. Scotty is an amazing talent who has worked with everyone from Antibalas to Wu Tang. In 2008 he was paralyzed from the waist down when a stolen car crashed into the taxi that was taking him home.
A number of amazing benefits for Scotty have taken place in the last couple years (follow the Scotty Hard Trust to keep up) the next one is going down June 3rd at the East Village club Drom. This show is part of the three-day Music Frees All Festival organized by Antibalas drummer Miles Amtzen and also has a stellar lineup:
Mago (Medeski& Martin)
EMEFE w/members of Antibalas and more
Ben Perowsky's Moodswing Orchestra
Mokaad
Nyle x Naysayers
DJ Afro-Marc
plus many special guests.
Get out there and do your part.