Memo to all bands boycotting Arizona: This is how you engage/inform people and affect change. How about having some courage to actually organize a concert as a form of activism inside our state lines – instead of, say, California?
Artists for Action/VivaArizona.org announced on Wednesday a voter registration concert in protest of SB 1070 for Aug. 27 at Marquee Theatre, featuring Calexico, Miniature Tigers, Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta, Kinch, Big Son (featuring Sam Means of The Format and Jeff Bufano and Chris Corak of Reubens Accomplice), Sand Rubies, Salvador Duran and more.
It’s a free show for anyone who pledges to vote on Nov. 2, and registration will be available for first-time voters. An excerpt from the press release:
Representatives from local non-profit human rights and immigration organizations will be there to provide information about SB 1070, immigration, and related human rights issues.
Artists for Action member Joey Burns, of Calexico, explains, “This will be a great way to get people in the Phoenix area excited about voting this fall and educated about the immigration issues facing Arizona today.”
For as awful as SB 1070 is, it’s interesting to me that the only people that really seem to get it are the bands/musicians/people from Arizona facing the issue every day, not the bandwagon boycotters eager for a quick headline. I found comments by Kim Gordon of now-boycotting Sonic Youth quite amusing: “I’ve always regarded Arizona as semi-evil. I don’t know if the logic really pans out, but my gut reaction is: I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to celebrate Arizona.” Always, eh? You had no problems playing TWO shows in our state in January – and no doubt taking home healthy paychecks from them.
On a related note, be sure to check out Up on the Sun’s post about the Most Worthlessly Obscure Bands on The Soundstrike’s Arizona Boycott List.
Hopefully, Arizonans will have a long memory when it comes time to remembering the bands and musicians that abandoned the fans – most of whom probably agree with their political viewpoints – and those who came here to offer their voice.
