Plea for Peace Tour 2004

Oh, you can count on plenty of blue-hairs lining up to vote this November — the old-lady variety, that is, not the ones surgically attached to a skateboard. Whatever the reason, our nation’s voting-eligible youth simply can’t be bothered to pull the levers on Election Day.

Hoping to alter that trend, punk-rock musician and activist Mike Park has made voter registration the raison d’tre for his fourth annual Plea for Peace Tour. This year’s bill features the moderately emo Cursive, the very screamo Planes Mistaken for Stars, boho rapper/poet Saul Williams, and Park himself, who’s doing the solo acoustic thing these days after a decade fronting ska and hard-core bands. Representatives from Music for America will also be on hand, “politely pestering” attendees to register if they haven’t already.

While he freely admits that his own political sailboat leans sharply to port, Park stresses that the tour itself is not one big partisan rant-fest. “It isn’t our job to shove any brand of politics down anyone’s throat,” he says. “It’s our job to inspire people to vote, and to make their own decisions when they do.”