Artists Lift America's Spirits in D.C.

by Sharvon Urbannavage staff writer

A star-studded lineup took the stage at RFK stadium in Washington D.C. on Oct. 21 to raise money for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Michael Jackson headlined the event, which raised over $2 million for the Pentagon Relief Fund, the American Red Cross Liberty Relief Fund and the Salvation Army Relief Fund.

Though accomplishing its purpose of raising money to aid in the relief efforts in New York City and D.C., the concert became one long night of technical glitches and irritable fans. After 11-and-a-half hours, the crowd of 47,000 people grew weary of the continuous waiting. Large gaps between performances resulted in many ticket holders leaving the stadium before the end of the concert and those who remained responded with spurts of booing.

Despite not having the concert come off exactly as planned, the show did go on. Backstreet Boys opened the show with an acappella version of the national anthem and then continued with a five-song set that included their hits "I Want It That Way" and "Shape of My Heart."

Aerosmith performed a stadium-booming rendition of "Walk This Way" and kept the crowd on its feet with ''Livin' on the Edge," "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and "Just Push Play." "We thought the world was coming to an end," Steven 'fyler said during Aerosmith's energy-packed performance, "but we got something you can't kill: love, liberty and the pursuit of rock and roll." Aerosmith proved its commitment to the nation by chartering a plane to get in and out of D.C. in time for a show later that night in Indianapolis after deciding not to perform via satellite.

Highlights throughout the evening included a blond Pink with acoustic renditions of "My Vietnam" from her upcoming album and a cover of Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee." Bette Midler performed "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," Al Green sang "Let's Stay Together" and James Brown did his famous sweat-andgrind routine to "Living in America."

A recovering Mariah Carey struggled through her songbird hits "Never Too Far" and "Hero" as she seemed incapable of hitting the high notes. Rod Stewart rocked the crowd with ''Hot Legs," while World War II images flashed behind him.

Other performances included 'N Sync, Mya, Billy Gillman, Usher, O-Town, Carole King, Train, Destiny's Child, Ce Ce Peniston, America and the Goo Goo Dolls. However, the most memorable performance of the evening was that of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

The most animated of anyone onstage that night, P. Diddy danced and marched from one end of the stage to the other while urging the crowd to grow louder. Bringing new meaning to his record label anthem "Bad Boy for Life" the rap mogul, dressed in military fatigues, managed to pump up the audience by playing clips of Queen's ''We Will Rock You" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." P. Diddy's finale included a huge gospel choir spanning the entire length of the stage, while performing "I'll Be Missing You" featuring the background vocals of Faith Evans.

Jackson performed just one song on his own, ''Man in the Mirror," dutjng which he draped himself in an American flag while a platform raised him above the audience. "Tonight we all stand united and ask, 'What more can I give?"' Jackson said. "To the families of the victims of Sept. 11 that are here with us tonight, you are not alone. You are in our hearts, you are in our thoughts and you are in our prayers."

The concert ended with a late night debut of his benefit single "What More Can I Give?" Jackson attempted a successful performance of his new tune with a host of personal celebrity friends including JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick of 'N Sync, Mariah Carey, Usher, Billy Gillman, Angie Stone, Chris Tucker, Mya and Macaulay Culkin. However, good intentions do not always promise good results. Singers botched the verses and technical difficulties drowned out everything other than the overpowering chorus. Still, their hearts were in the right place.

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by Luke Stevenson guest writer

Music has always been an important part of my life. I have always been into rock music; therefore, on Oct.22 when I was offered a free and last minute chance to attend this year's Family Values Tour, I gladly accepted.

The first band was Deadsy. It was the first time I ever heard this band and I was not the least bit impressed. They were a little too boring for my tastes.

Up next was Static-X. This band played the Pantera/Slayer show which I also had the privilege of attending this summer. As far as live performance is concerned, they were pretty good.

Then there was Linkin Park. I was anxious to see these guys; they were not a disappointment. The band was full of energy and they got the crowd pretty fired up. Their music consists of a good blend of hard rock and hip hop. Most of the songs they played was off of their album, with the exception of an unreleased song that everyone seemed to enjoy.

After a short break and a sound clip from Kubrick's The Shining, Staind took the stage.There are no other words to describe their performance better except, incredible. This is another band with an extremely talented lead singer. The relaxing vibe they give off live, while playing their loud abusive tunes is amazing. They played a lot of tracks off of their new CD, a couple of favorites off of Dysfunction and an acoustic version of "Outside."

The band that ended the night was Stone Temple Pilots. STP is a band that I got into nearly a decade ago. I listened to their first two albums relentlessly and quickly lost touch with the band; however, the majority of the music they played consisted of tracks from their first couple of albums. They gave an outstanding performance.

With the exception of STP, I stand by my original opinion about today's bands. The MTV/ mainstream radio-rock music scene is getting more and more full of talentless showoffs, but there are exceptions. All the bands that performed at the Family Values Tour really gave it their all and showed all those in attendance a great time.