On Wednesday, December 14, 2016, a small portion of those affected by the devastating fire at the Oakland, CA artists’ collective known as The Ghost Ship, which took the lives of 36 people, gathered for an impromptu, collective mourning and celebration of the lives lost, those left and attempt to heal the numbing.
Organized in only eight days, a slew of Oakland born and curated artists, writers and musicians took to the stage at the Fox Theatre, delivering their talents for anywhere from five to 25 minutes long, for almost four hours total.
“I spent the whole day really pondering this thing,” said Les Claypool, founding member, bassist and visionary behind the event’s top-billing group, Primus. “There’s this heaviness and this darkness. I don’t think I’ve ever done a show that has been surrounded by so much pain.”
Other performances included a DJ set from Beats Antique, Tycho, The Coup, Hieroglyphics, Thao Nguyen, the tUnE-yArDs, Kennedy Ashlynn of Them Are Us Too, Fantastic Negrito, Rogue Wave, Geographer and Dan Deacon, the only act on the stage that was not a native of the Oakland/ SF Bay Area.
Of the dozen acts and performances on the stage, three were recently nominated for a Grammy Award: Tycho’s fifth album Epoch was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album, Fantastic Negrito’s Last Days Of Oakland was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album and Primus & The Chocolate Factory was nominated for Best Surround Sound Album.
Ashlyn, who’s bandmate and significant other Cash Askew was claimed by the tragedy, gave the most haunting performance of the evening with Anya Taylor. The tribute to Askew, a quarter-tempo mammoth rendition of “The Sweetness” by Jimmy Eat World, encapsulated the days since the fire with brilliant exhaustion as the chorus and ghastly woah-oh-ah-oh’s begged, “are you listening?”
Deacon’s high energy performance offered an injection of positivity that the somber crowd desperately needed, going as far to turn the floor of the Fox into an impromptu dance-off, and concluded the set asking everyone to stretch their arms out, and grab a hand.
“It doesn’t matter if somebody else is already holding that hand,” Deacon said. “We all need all of each other right now. Hold each other up, it’s not an exclusive need.”
The entire evening played through like a festival in fast-forward. The acts were eclectic, there was barely any overlapping of genre or sound and the unified message of solidarity and togetherness was stronger than I’ve personally felt at any typical indoor gathering.
In between acts, while the stagehands worked in overdrive to turn around the stage for the next artist, local figureheads in the underground community – architects of safe spaces and outlets for outcasts. This included the event organizers like Another Planet Entertainment, who runs shows at The Fox, The Greek, The Independent and several other staple music venues in the Bay Area, Noise Pop, and Paradigm Talent Agency as well as community organizers such as Josette Melchor, executive director and founder of the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.
Gabe Meline of KQED gave a heavy, emotional reading of his December 4 article titled It Could Have Been Any Of Us. He, as well as nearly every speaker or performer that took the stage, recounted that sentiment and recalled their own introductions into these unsafe corners where society tends to shove the arts.
“I feel strange typing these words, because I no longer live in communal artist spaces like this. But they stay with you. They shape us, make us more fearless, give us confidence, validate our dreams. We never forget what those spaces gave us, especially those of us who turned those dreams into a life, and re-fit ourselves back into a once ill-fitting world,” read Meline. “The people lost to the Oakland fire will never get that chance.”
Outside of Dan Deacon’s engagement of the audience, the crowd on the floor and in the balcony was less than animated all evening. People were into the music, and some folks were drunk so it was a far cry from a room of statues. Everyone in the crowd was letting the music do what it has always done: transport your mind away from the limitations of perceived reality, from the world, from the pain.
During the closing set, Claypool spoke to that reality from a perspective that doesn’t get tossed around in friendly family circles: as a parent, and called for more of these benefit shows to create a fund for updating the safety of music venues and out of code retreats.
Donations are still being accepted, and more information can be found here.