For all the haters out there who dissed Zack de la Rocha's anti-SB 1070 Sound Strike concert, to take place at the Hollywood Palladium this Friday, July 23, I've got two words for you: SOLD OUT.
Tickets for the event, which will be headlined by Rage Against the Machine and Conor Oberst, were gone in about three minutes. I don't know the total number sold, but Billboard Magazine states that the Hollywood Palladium has a capacity of 4,000.
Organizers have said previously that they anticipate raising more than $300,000 from the concert.
Eat that, nativists (and assorted other nudniks).
Although Sound Strike is a boycott of Arizona -- one that has signed on such diverse acts as Cypress Hill, Tenacious D, Kanye West, Sonic Youth and numerous others -- the concert will benefit organizations fighting SB 1070, and helping immigrants in the state. Among these are the Phoenix civil rights group Puente and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
New Times' sister paper LA Weekly covered the press conference for the concert this morning in Los Angeles, which was attended by de la Rocha, RATM guitarist Tom Morello, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, National Day Laborer Organizing Network lawyer Chris Newman, and Puente's Sal Reza.
"This is not a Latino or immigration issue," de la Rocha told reporters. "This is a battle for basic human dignity."
Indeed, it is. I also liked what Morello had to say:
"We are here to rock this mother to the ground...We are here to give notice that we will not let this law stand."You can read more about the media event in LA Weekly's blog The Informer.
I commend Sound Strike's efforts and de la Rocha especially for remaining so consistent and true to his principles. De la Rocha has been committed to fighting injustice in Arizona when all we had to worry about was Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-immigrant sweeps.
But, as Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra once sang of Ronald Reagan, "We've got a bigger problem now."
I'm told Sound Strike will be uploading footage of the press conference. When that happens, I'll link to it here.
