Benefit Show – May 25th at the Echo in L.A.
Good afternoon,
We are thrilled to announced that we will be returning to the first place we ever played a show for a very special benefit concert to raise funds for the Neda Project, a series of events we are doing with Amnesty International about Neda Agha-Soltan and digital democracy in Iran.
The show will be in two weeks on May 25th, 2010 at the Echo here in Los Angeles. Tickets are very limited and will be first come, first served. They went on sale today at noon PST. They are $30 each. All proceeds will benefit the Neda Project. Here is the LINK to purchase tickets.
The Neda Project
Neda Agha-Soltan was a young woman living in Iran—a student, who was shot in the street by government militia for participating in peaceful protests against the disputed election of Mahmoud Ahmadenijad. Her death was captured on video, uploaded to YouTube and within hours seen by millions around the world. She quickly became a symbol for the resistance and for the brutality of unchecked tyranny.
Like millions of people, we were deeply touched by the video and the horrific treatment of Neda and her family by the regime afterwards: the desecration of her grave, the intimidation of those who wished only to mourn her death, the allegations of torture of those who deny the government’s claim that it was a foreign plot that killed Neda and not the Basij. (A member of the Basij was caught red-handed on the scene and confessed. His ID was confiscated, though he was released for fear of punishment. He has not been brought to justice).
We wrote a song, called simply “Neda,” in tribute to her. We will be releasing the song and an accompanying video telling Neda’s story on June 8th, 2010 in preparation for the one-year anniversary of the disputed election of Ahmadinejad on June 12th and the one-year anniversary of Neda’s death on June 20th.
We will be asking you to participate in an online march as a statement of empathy from people living in the West with people living inside Iran struggling for their freedom and for people struggling for human rights everywhere.
Amnesty International has become our partner and will be involved in the benefit, the release of the video and the online march to follow. We will have more details in the coming weeks.
The Neda video was the first viral video to change the course of political events. Many people were killed in the violence after the disputed election. Neda’s death was caught on film. It awakened the world to the brutality of the regime and widespread resistance to it by the Iranian people. It’s one of the first examples of the democratization of broadcasting—that broadcasting is no longer solely in the hands of corporations and government, but in the hands of people.
Anyone with a cell-phone camera and an internet connection can broadcast to the world. It means not only that the world is watching, but also, that the world is filming.
We’ll see you at the Echo. If you buy a ticket, we not only want your money for the project, but your participation, and we will be asking you to do a few simple but powerful things to support the project, to honor what Neda represents and to send a message that we stand with people struggling for freedom.
Mikel, Anna, Steven, Noah, Daren
the Airborne Toxic Event
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Again, that ticket link is HERE.
To see a video of Mikel announcing the show and the purpose of the Neda Project with Nazanin Boniadi, spokesperson for Amnesty International, click HERE, or watch it above.
For more information on Neda, click any of these links:
Amnesty International – News and Updates about Neda
Amnesty International – Postcard to Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei (PDF)
Amnesty International – Iran: Stop Using Basij Militia to Police Demonstrations
6 Comments
Just got my tickets, hope its another great show for a great cause. I attended the January concert at Troubadour and it was a ball. Bring back Aushua for the opening act, they also were amazing.
Would like to buy tickets. Please advise on how to…. Thanks