Conscience attracts artists to tour
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THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Friday, October 01, 2004By Doug Pullen
dpullen@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6140
Boyd Tinsley, violinist for the Dave Matthews Band, says that alienating some Republican fans is worth it if this week's historic Vote for Change concerts get people to think and vote.
The band members are standing up for what they believe in, he says, and he figures their fans should, too, no matter what their political affinity.
"We all feel strongly about this," says Tinsley, whose group headlines one of six anti-President Bush concerts Sunday in Michigan, one of nine election swing states targeted by the tour. "Put it like this, we are all in favor of change and supporting John Kerry for president. There's definitely some concern from members of the band. We recognize that a good part of our audience is Republican, or at least not Democrat, but I think that we felt a responsibility ... to say something."
The opposition of band members to the current administration was spurred by the United States' invasion of Iraq last year. Tinsley has met with some of the estimated 7,000 American military personnel wounded in the Iraqi war - an experience that helped inspire his decision to take part in the unprecedented 11-state, 32-city tour that began Monday in Phoenix, Ariz.
"I've seen a lot of these kids at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center). They're 18, 19 and 20 years old. A lot of them are Dave Matthews Band fans," Tinsley said by phone recently. "This war doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to us. Every day on the news, you see more killed, more bombings, more beheadings. We (don't) seem to be making this country any safer. We're inviting terrorists over there. We felt we had to speak out and make this decision."
Tinsley's band is part of a star-studded roster of artists headlining the Vote for Change tour. In addition to DMB's 6 p.m. show at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Bruce Springsteen joins John Fogerty and R.E.M. at Detroit's Cobo Arena at 7 p.m., and the Dixie Chicks share the stage with James Taylor at 7:30 p.m. at Detroit's Fox Theatre.
Elsewhere, Pearl Jam headlines the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids, fellow Hoosiers John Mellencamp and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds barnstorm Kalamazoo's State Theatre, and Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt will team at the Wharton Center in East Lansing.
All but the DMB and Browne-Raitt shows are sold out, although 300 choice seats for the Springsteen concert were released this week. More than 30,000 patrons are expected to attend the Michigan shows, which could raise nearly $2 million.
The tour, which is being filmed for a documentary, culminates with an all-star finale Oct. 11 in Washington, D.C., that will air live on the Sundance Channel.
Organizers say music fans on either side of the political fence can expect some surprises. Several of the big-name artists are expected to share stage time with one another, including Fogerty, who'll be backed by Springsteen and his band.
"It's big as an event, so expect big moments," R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs told The Associated Press.
Springsteen, who has a long history of activism and charitable work and who spoke out against the war on his tour last year, hopes to help force regime change at home.
"Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics," he wrote recently in The New York Times. "Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out."
Springsteen got the ball rolling on the tour, expected to raise up to $40 million from ticket sales for America Coming Together. The organization plans to use the money to register voters and beat the bushes for Democratic Sen. John Kerry. The Boss called on an array of like-minded performers, including veterans Sheryl Crow and Crosby, Stills & Nash and newer acts such as Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes.
"Once we started talking to each other, ideas started percolating and other artists started reaching out to us," Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, told the AP.
The effort, which is sponsored by liberal Moveon.org's political action committee, is part of a groundswell of get-out-the-vote, kick-the-bums-out-of-office efforts by musicians and other artists hoping to mobilize undecided, apathetic and young voters.
Monday is the last day people can register to vote in the Nov. 2 election.
The movement gained critical momentum last summer with the release of Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," a box-office blockbuster that emboldened many who disagree with the president and his policies. (The DVD and soundtrack will hit stores Tuesday.) The Davison-bred Moore is stumping college campuses across the country, including several in Michigan this week, as part of his 20-state, 60-city Slacker Uprising tour.
"My goal is to get as many of the 100 million nonvoters in America as I can to give voting a try," Moore said in a recent e-mail, "just this once."
The varied voter registration drives, including signups at this year's Hip-Hop Summits in Detroit and other major cities, may be working. Numerous states report high levels of new voter registrations. A recent MTV poll indicated that three out of four young people, who usually avoid elections, are registered to vote and eight out of 10 of them plan to vote, with 46 percent supporting Kerry to Bush's 40 percent support, according to AP.
Rebeka Mikkelson, a Green Party member and University of Michigan-Flint student from Caro who organized a voter registration drive last week at Flint Local 432, applauds the idea even if she doesn't agree with the politics.
"I don't really support MoveOn as a personal political choice. However, the idea is a good idea, to bring bands and get kids in (and say), 'You need to register to vote now or you'll miss your chance,'" she said.
Legendary rocker Fogerty, who will be backed by Springsteen and his band on the tour, says he "jumped at the chance" to be a part of this historic outing. "I have pretty strong feelings about it," said Fogerty, whose CCR songs "Fortunate Son" and "Who'll Stop the Rain" articulated many Americans' anti-Vietnam war sentiments in the 1970s.
Fogerty defends his right as a citizen and artist to stand up for his beliefs: "Whoever (is on) the other side have their right to do this. This is America. We kind of duke it out, but hopefully in a fair and equal process."
There isn't a Republican equivalent of the tour. Many artists declined invitations to join Vote for Change. Some didn't want to alienate conservative fans. Others didn't have a consensus agreement within their bands. Others are politically conservative, like Christian rockers Third Day and country's Brooks & Dunn, who performed at the Republican National Convention.
Metallica's James Hetfield said his band won't take sides. "It's pretty risky," said the singer, whose band performs tonight at The Palace of Auburn Hills. "You never win with that. It's so polarizing."
Fogerty, whose new song "Deja Vu (All Over Again)" laments the war in Iraq, hopes the Vote for Change artists can set the tone for constructive dialogue.
"I'm not going to present my own personal points of view. I'm going to present my music and hopefully, as a result of this tour, some kind of dialogue (will come out), not two sides shouting at each other at the top of their lungs, but a dialogue where people actually soul search and question what they believe in and ask, 'How am I gonna vote>' " he said.
"The end result, and I mean this, is please go vote."
The Dave Matthews Band, which registered nearly 15,000 new voters on its summer tour, plans on "playing our hearts out," Tinsley said, and hopes to "inspire people to take the election seriously and get involved."
He's talking to other musicians about staging a national unity concert sometime after Nov. 2. After Sept. 11, "we came together as Americans, showing solidarity among Democrats and Republicans. We've got to get back to that, to being one nation," Tinsley said. "It's like a cold civil war going on in this country. It can't go on much longer."
Contributing writer John McKay contributed to this report.
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