Tibetan Freedom concerts - did anyone here go?

[dave790]

I'm doing an essay which will tie-in with the Free Tibet concerts Yauch put on. The outline is basically anything to do with history in the public sphere, and as I recently read the Angus Batey Beasties book - which has a fair bit on the concerts - and my general interest in the cause and obviously the Beasties, I am going to devise a question covering the need for events such as the Tibetan Freedom concerts and the effects they have had.

So I was just wandering if anyone here had attended any of the concerts and if so, what did you feel? I have no problem if people just went for a good gig. But if it sparked interest or anything in the cause and has lead anyone here to get involved that would be useful to.

Cheers.

[Laver1969]

I went to the TFC 99 that was in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. Good concert, good line up. I can't say that I took in any of the Tibetan Freedom-type stuff but they had a tent or two full of that kind of stuff.

Rage put on one great show. Run DMC sucked. And the Beasties rocked it.

Also...you should pick up the dvd called Free Tibet. It's a documentary style movie from the 1996 concert. Definitely will give you the flavor of the experience.

[cj hood]

I was at 2 at Randalls Island and 3 in DC....

[Kid Presentable]

Dave, obviously I didn't go, but the interesting thing to me has always been that although events like the benefits concerts are good generally in the public sphere, what Yauch really achieved was bringing awareness of a particularly hush-hush human rights issue right out to the forefront and giving young people an opportunity (however briefly they may have taken it) to feel attached to the cause. I mean, it was on the news in bloody New Zealand!

[rhymesayer211]

I also attended one at Randalls. Adrock had the fro going, great show! The overall feeling, that you were supporting such a good cause, was enlightening in itself. You may not have been too involved in the cause but just a good feeling. Tibet is a peaceful land and what they have dealt with to have their own little peaceful part of the planet is a shame. Sounds like a great topic, good sh*t!

[cj hood]

@ randalls: when the beasties took the stage it was like a tsunami of people rushing the stage....no other way to describe it!!! red jumpsuits, adrock's afro, mike's c*rows...ill!
@ DC: lab coats...girl got killed the night before from lightning, HN trax debuted (a month before record dropped.)

both 2 & 3 were during the longest hiatus at that time (94-98) where not a lot was going on. so to see them do their thing was a very special.

[QueenAdrock]

I went to TFC '98 in DC. It was the first time they played tracks from Hello Nasty live, so it was pretty awesome to see.

I've been political from an early age, and I do attribute some of that to Tibetan Freedom, actually. I went for the music, but it was the first time I'd heard about the plight of the Tibetan people (I was only 14 at the time with limited access to the Internet, so I'm not surprised by my ignorance). I specifically remember seeing monks talk about what happened to them under Chinese rule, and I remember being horrified by one monk who had the entire top row of his teeth missing and him telling everyone that he lost them due to a cattle prod being shoved in his mouth. He said this was commonplace, and women were often raped with cattle prods. I also remember them saying that they hated the actions of the Chinese, but not the people themselves, and I found that to be quite touching and inspiring. The monks walking around were in good spirits and happy to be there, and there was a tent where a lot of them were doing sand paintings and talking to concert-goers who stopped in. There were a ton of volunteers walking around with postcards for people to sign that they were going to send to President Clinton. I signed one, but felt I should do more. I raised awareness of Tibet at my school, donated money, signed petitions, and went to rallies. I tried to start up a chapter of Students for a Free Tibet at my school, but encountered great apathy and didn't have the minimum amount of students needed to get it off the ground. I still champion human rights advocacy through my current job and extracurricular activities up here.

Hope that helps!

[QueenAdrock]

@ DC: lab coats...girl got killed the night before from lightning, HN trax debuted (a month before record dropped.)

She didn't die. She was critically injured, but turned out okay: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72710&catid=187

My friends who were there on the first day were rows up from her and were able to feel the heat from it. Shit's nuts.

[dave790]

This is more than I could have asked for, thank you very much! Some really cool info and views. I may quote a few of you, I'll make your names up. I still have to formulate all of this into a fairly concise question that will provoke 3000 words, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Ta again.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

I went to the one in DC at RFK stadium with the lightning. RFK is an awesome stadium. The stands will actuall rock with the crowd when people get going. The lighting struck during Herbie Hancock's set. Everything stopped. It must have been an hour or so of waiting, it was raining fairly hard. The cool thing was that these tarps started showing up down in the general admission area and people were using them to keep out of the rain (you can fit a ton of people under a tarp). As things went on we all started joining the tarps into this giant tent. We actually tried to hold out with our tarp for a while but evetually got assimilated. So you had people holding up the edges and keeping the seams together and other people sort of walking and hanging out under there. It was a really positive vibe under that tarp village. Then MCA came out and said they were going to cancel the rest of the night because of the girl who got struck by lightning. No Beck, which was kind of a bummer.

On the next day the Beasties played. As people said they debuted some Hello Nasty tracks. But the big thing as far as their live shows was that this was the beginning of them constantly switching up beats. There were a lot of mistakes. They polished things up a lot by the time they got back to the U.S. for the tour.

I also went to the rally outside of the Capital Building. It was a good turn out but kind of dissapointing that more people from the concert didn't come out. It definately highlights the part of the problem with mixing music and politics. If the Beasties had started out as a political group it might be different, but there are a lot of fans who really only cared about seeing the band. It's hard to carry both the music and the politics when they're not inherently connected.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

That article says it was Dave Mathew's Band playing during the lightning but I clearly remember Herbie Hancock stopping mid set. Am I remembering that wrong?

It's possible I was just trying to scrub the nightmare of Dave Mathews from my brain.

[dave790]

Got this essay back the other day, a tidy first so thanks everyone who contributed. Quoted nearly all of you (I trust you don't mind) so once again, cheers! :)

[Top 10]

I went to the first one

[Laver1969]

Got this essay back the other day, a tidy first so thanks everyone who contributed. Quoted nearly all of you (I trust you don't mind) so once again, cheers! :)


What grade did you get???

[dave790]

73. Ta!

[CatchaGroove]

Went to DC - that lighting was nuts. During the Headhunters Funk Explosion. Celeb crowd / parties were interesting. Saw the B-Boys at the 9:30 club on Friday and I think RHCP played the showand I think others were the Propellerheads, and maybe the Jungle Brothers...long time ago man.

Yeah - here it is:

http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/350149/19980613/index.jhtml


Went to Randall's - Beastie Boys were crazy good. The Root Down is legendary Right? And Adrock's hair was off the toilet chain.

I got quoted at the DC show for in "addicted to noise" magazine or online site I forgot...something to the effect of "most of what I knew at the time about Tibet was because of MCA....and I dug the Monk ritual, Tribe and the B-Boys."

Show Rosters were insane. Great times.

Free Tibet.