Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jenny Lewis & Friends Haiti Benefit Concert at The Largo

Last night I had the honor of attending the Jenny Lewis & Friends Haiti Benefit Concert at The Largo and I must start off by saying that my love for the indie-rock goddess has only grown exponentially since seeing her. For those of you that are unaware of who Jenny Lewis is may know her from the successful band Rilo Kiley, but as of late, Miss Lewis has been going solo with two albums (Rabbit Fur Coat at Acid Tongue).

Last night was a very special evening of music. Jenny was joined by singer-songwriter and boyfriend Jonathan Rice, newly reformed indie band Azure Ray, Jason Boesel and Morgan Nagler (from Whispertown2000) and Becky Stark (Lavendar Diamond). You got the feeling that they threw the event together quickly because it wasn't an organized set of music. It was basically Jenny Lewis and a group of her friends who all gathered together to play songs that are both new and old. She prefaced the show by telling concertgoers that whenever her and her friends get together they usually play songs that they have recently written for one another to see if they can add anything and to give constructive criticism.

To begin, they all played three songs each and then realized that they had more time so each artist played one more song. Anyone who came to the event hoping for hits from both her Rilo Kiley days and her solo albums were probably disappointed, but for me, I was just in awe of seeing an artist that I admire so much just stand on a stage with a guitar and play.

The Largo has had a string of benefit shows since the tragedy in Haiti took place, and they have raised over $33,000 dollars already and made a promise to continue to aid Haiti with a benefit show each month.

For more information on how you can help the people of Haiti visit the Official Red Cross Website or you can go to the official Doctors Without Borders Website (which is where the money from Jenny Lewis & Friends went towards).

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