On Saturday, October 7 Tom Morello played a set for an audience of protesters in Los Angeles. At the same time, over at Occupy Wall Street in New York, Anti-Flag jammed in the middle of an immense crowd where they covered The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”
Musicians have joined the growing movement of Occupy Wall Street. Whether it was the Radiohead performance that never was or when Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum played In the Areoplane Over the Sea late into the night on Wednesday, October 5th. Over the weekend, this trend continued with some heavy hitters.
Within the past week band members and artists have not only played live sets, but attended the rallies and forums. Talib Kweli performed in New York on October 6. On Monday, October 10, Hip-Hop icon Russell Simmons and Kanye West attended the Occupy Wall Street rally in New York. Yoko Ono has passionately declared her faith in the movement. Pop-Up art galleries, costume designs, performance pieces, and even ice cream (none other than the creative team behind Ben &Jerry’s) have been inspired to support the movement.
Occupy Wall Street began as a flyer in AD Busters magazine over the summer of 2011 and has developed participants in 55 + major cities and campuses over the country.
The group harvests the resources of media and social networking and shares the experiences and performances with the online world, all in real time.
After Jeff Mangum’s performance someone from the crowd said the music “injected a new vibrancy.”
