Review: Humanitarian Notes Benefit Concert - 12.06.2011

I Am the Third recently played a benefit concert for Humanitarian Notes with Osekre and the Lucky Bastards at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Humanitarian Notes is this really neat organization that exists to bring music with a good message to those of third-world countries. The founder of the non-profit, Dan Cwirka, got the idea when he was in Africa (I forget which country) and on a bus where they played the same scratched CD over and over. Dan started get this idea that it would be a good idea to not only provide these public buses with new music choices (haha), but that it might be a neat idea to provide positive music with a good message. In the area of Africa he was in, AIDS awareness was one of the main projects that it made sense to focus on, and he felt that for the residents to hear their style of music with their favorite musicians talking about these things might make it easier to bring these subjects to light and become aware of them, practice and discuss safe measures with their partners, etc.

A photo of the CD Dan compiled

I think it's pretty well-known that in a lot of places where AIDS is common, it is often taboo to discuss sex or the related risks, which makes it harder for the people to be educated or feel comfortable dealing with it. The idea is maybe if the people hear someone talking about it, they too will feel less ashamed or like they're committing some great faux pas and talk about sex and STIs themselves.

Song list

I really like their logo, which is a bass note and an AIDS awareness ribbon forming the shape of a heart. 

Aw.

Of course, the music was great too, as always. 

I Am the Third

Osekre and the Lucky Bastards.

As you can see from this photo, there were actually a lot of people there for such a small venue:

Also, I Am the Third got fancy business cards and had CDs for sale for the first time ever (that I've seen)!

Don't they look great? Anyway, I'll leave you with this great cover from the show. I love when they play this song because if there was anyone left who wasn't already dancing, this will do the trick every time.

I love Alec's voice. I only wish my camera recorded sound better.

If you want to check out the Humanitarian Notes (and missed the link before), this is their website.

Portions of this post were originally published at: WhatGrew.