Gabe Douglas with Nathan Miller and Danny O'Brien
Read More Local Minneapolis bands have come together to help raise money to fight a proposed constitutional amendment regarding the Marriage Rights. The bill would effectively ban same-sex marriage for couples in Minnesota; we want you to vote "NO" to the November bill.
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"All you need is love, love is all you need" seems to be the overwhelming message last night from all the local musicians on stage.
To give you a little background, last May, Minnesota Senate passed an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. The amendment ("Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota") under revision H1613.0 will be in the ballot this November 2012.
Minnesota United For All Families, is just one of the organization hoping to defeat the bill. They did the smart thing, instead of making it a gay/lesbian/transsexual issue; they are making everyone's issue. The message is this: if you love someone, why is it only legal if they're the opposite sex.
Dan Rodriguez was the MC, taking care of all the introductions and keeping everyone on a tight ship. Because of at least ten performers, they had to limit everyone to just three songs. As musicians stay and leave and joined on each other's songs, you get the impression that everyone knows and respect each other … like it was one big happy singing family.
Roster McCabe is on the road and couldn't make it to the show; instead, the band recorded a video message for us. The first actual performer was Ari Herstand. He tells us that he's a transplant from California and his experience with the dreaded car impound lot through his songs. He had some help with Dan Danny O'Brien (from the Farewell Circuit) and Rodriguez for his second song, and for his last song, he had a movie he specifically put together for the marriage amendment.
Dessa Darling was there, but she didn't perform, instead just commented about how it is just common sense to support same-sex marriage. She's followed up by O'Brien and DJ House as The Farewell Circuit. They are normally a five-piece band, but they did just fine with two guitars. Herstand would later return the favor by appearing on a Farewell Circuit song.
David Booth was the musician who came up with the idea of putting on this charity event. O'Brien joined on stage for his final song, "Kiss".
Kevin Bowe said it took him five years to write his latest album, which he sang "Falling Satellites" with Alison Scott. Scott would stay and had help from Bowe and started her three-song set with a cover of TLC's "Waterfall". Apparently she's been working on a covers album, with the help of Chris Koza for their duet of Elliott Smith's "Waltz #2". Koza would stay on to perform his three-song set. He ended with his band, Rogue Valley's "Shoulder to Shoulder".
Gabriel Douglas (of The 4onthefloor) had help from Nathan Miller on the lap steel slide guitar. He ended his little set with "Great Escapes", a song that I think was about Duluth.
I've never heard of Ellis before, but what I heard, I really liked. She started off with "Blackbird", from her 2008 album, Break the Spell. She had Chastity Brown on for "I Belong Here Next to You" and ended with "Right Now".
I think the best combination of the night is with Brown and Joe Horton (of No Bird Sing). It was like soulful folk with rhymesayer-type hip hop poetry.
For the grand finale, David Booth, with mostly everyone involved, came on stage to sing The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".
As you can see from the photographs, these are all different artists from different genre, working together. To paraphrase Joe Horton's message, what if someone made a law to forbid this? Keep those thoughts in mind with this law about restricting the freedom to be married to who you love. Minnesotans United for All Families wants Minnesota to be the first state to oppose this marriage amendment bill (which essentially is an anti-same-sex marriage bill). You can register and pledge to vote NO on mnunited.org.
To give you a little background, last May, Minnesota Senate passed an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. The amendment ("Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota") under revision H1613.0 will be in the ballot this November 2012.
Minnesota United For All Families, is just one of the organization hoping to defeat the bill. They did the smart thing, instead of making it a gay/lesbian/transsexual issue; they are making everyone's issue. The message is this: if you love someone, why is it only legal if they're the opposite sex.
Dan Rodriguez was the MC, taking care of all the introductions and keeping everyone on a tight ship. Because of at least ten performers, they had to limit everyone to just three songs. As musicians stay and leave and joined on each other's songs, you get the impression that everyone knows and respect each other … like it was one big happy singing family.
Ari Herstand with the Farewell Circuit
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Dessa Darling was there, but she didn't perform, instead just commented about how it is just common sense to support same-sex marriage. She's followed up by O'Brien and DJ House as The Farewell Circuit. They are normally a five-piece band, but they did just fine with two guitars. Herstand would later return the favor by appearing on a Farewell Circuit song.
David Booth was the musician who came up with the idea of putting on this charity event. O'Brien joined on stage for his final song, "Kiss".
Alison Scott with Chris Koza and Kevin Bowe
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Gabriel Douglas (of The 4onthefloor) had help from Nathan Miller on the lap steel slide guitar. He ended his little set with "Great Escapes", a song that I think was about Duluth.
Ellis with Chastity Brown
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Ellis with Brown
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I think the best combination of the night is with Brown and Joe Horton (of No Bird Sing). It was like soulful folk with rhymesayer-type hip hop poetry.
For the grand finale, David Booth, with mostly everyone involved, came on stage to sing The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".
As you can see from the photographs, these are all different artists from different genre, working together. To paraphrase Joe Horton's message, what if someone made a law to forbid this? Keep those thoughts in mind with this law about restricting the freedom to be married to who you love. Minnesotans United for All Families wants Minnesota to be the first state to oppose this marriage amendment bill (which essentially is an anti-same-sex marriage bill). You can register and pledge to vote NO on mnunited.org.
From left to right: DJ House, David Booth, Nathan Miller, Chris Koza, Gabriel Douglas (not seen), Dan Rodriguez, Danny O'Brien, Ellis, and Alison Scott, at The Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (04/12/12) |
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