Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Solidarity Holds Concert

Rob Hutton (SFS ’04) has twin passions. He loves to make a difference and he loves great music. The Georgetown senior was able to combine both of his passions on Friday night as the Georgetown Solidarity Committee hosted a benefit concert in the Leavey Center’s Bulldog Alley.

“I was asked by one of my friends to help find bands for the concert but when I heard the story behind it I really wanted to help,” Hutton said. “Activism in its truest sense is lacking at Georgetown and musical expression through the arts is sorely lacking so we really wanted to put this together.”

The concert was not so much a musical event as a political statement. Josh Balk, the outreach coordinator for Compassion Over Killing, a Washington, D.C.-based animal advocacy group, set up a table with brochures detailing his organization’s viewpoints.

“Animals on many farms are abused so horrifically that if the same acts were done to dogs or cats there’d be prosecution in any state in America,” he said.

The concert featured six bands including We the Turtle, Rosa, Black Guise, Jailbait and Asteroid 6. The Rude Staircase headlined the show.

Rosa, comprised of two Houston students going only by the names Brad and Emily, are hitchhiking across the United States and playing impromptu shows wherever they can.

“We told a friend we wanted to play music and he sent us an e-mail about the concert tonight so we just showed up,” Emily said.

Vikram Tamboli (COL ’06) a representative of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee sat at a table in front of Bulldog Alley collecting ticket fees and greeting concert goers for much of the night.

“We are having the concert to show solidarity with workers and make some money for our organization,” he said. “It’s really an organic thing because people wanted it to happen and it did.”

Concert coordinators only had three weeks to organize the event but managed to put it together in time. Two bands scheduled to perform had to drop out at the last minute and organizers had to scramble for replacements. Each group played free of charge.

All of the bands except for Rosa and the Rude Staircase had at least one Georgetown student.

The Rude Staircase, an eclectic 10-piece band featuring traditional instruments as well as a washboard, tambourines and kitchen pans, finished off the evening with a blistering musical set which stunned the crowd with its intensity. Many attendees had drifted off by the end of the night and only a sparse crowd remained.

Johnny Brill (COL ’06) was excited by the entire concert.

“Georgetown is a small campus not known for its arts scene so it’s good to see students interested in something other than polo shirts and popped collars,” he said. “I only wish there was a bigger audience for the Rude Staircase because they were phenomenal.”

The event was sponsored by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee and the Georgetown Vegetarian-Vegan Society to raise funds for the Solidarity Committee’s programs and for D.C. Food not Bombs, an organization which makes community meals for homeless people.

By the end of the night, organizers proclaimed the event the most successful evening of fundraising in the Solidarity Committee’s history. Over $350 was raised.

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