John C. Reilly hosts Los Angeles benefit concert for wildfire relief

G*ve a F*ck LA Benefit Concert

G*ve a F*ck LA Nonprofit Website
Friends In Deed Nonprofit Website
Pasadena Humane Society Website
One Voice Nonprofit Website
Altadena Girls Website

Performers: John C. Reilly, Christopher Owens, MUNA, Courtney Barnett, Perfume Genius, FINNEAS, Reggie Watts, Fred Armisen, Sasami + Rostam, Hayley Williams, Scout Willis, Jenny Lewis, Starcrawler, Juliette Lewis, St. Vincent, Kevin Morby, The Linda Lindas, Lucy Dacus, Symone, DJ Fat Tony

Venue: Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA – Feb. 05, 2025

Vibe Check: 🥱

Mic Check: 💃🏽

“You talk shit about LA and you end up looking like an idiot” – John C. Reilly

In January 2025, Los Angeles experienced the most catastrophic wildfires in its history. Since January 7, a series of wildfires have ravaged L.A. County, consuming 55,082 acres due to strong Santa Ana winds and severe dry conditions. The Palisades and Eaton Fires were the most destructive, burning 23,700 and 14,000 acres, respectively. To date, the fires have claimed at least 29 lives and destroyed over 16,251 structures.

The wildfires directly destroyed 16,251 homes, commercial properties, and other structures, along with numerous automobiles and personal belongings. Of these, 6,837 structures in Pacific Palisades and Malibu were lost to the Palisades Fire, and 9,414 in Altadena to the Eaton Fire.

(Source: UCLA)

After the initial shock and panic died down, Angelenos reinforced why there’s no where else in the world I’d rather be. We take care of our own and care so deeply for the artist community. This particular benefit was just one of a handful that popped up throughout this week. The Fire Aid benefit concert streamed globally from two of LA’s largest venues while smaller locally owned venues held donation-only shows.

Los Angeles and its creative outputs are constantly on the global stage. The city itself is seen, from the outside, as a place of excess and where influencers run rampant. I’ve been here nearly 15 years and I know that it can’t be further from the truth.

This city absolutely does not run without everyday working class people. The wealthy, though they do aggregate here, do not represent what makes this city thrive: service workers, hospitality workers, healthcare workers, everyday plebes like me that work in an office. Entertainment is the primary output of LA and that, too, requires the labor of undecorated and undercelebrated set decorators, stage assistants, writers, musicians, construction laborers, camera people, caterers, and dozens of other jobs I’ve never heard of before. There are no superstars without everyone else.

These are the people impacted by the wildfires. All the regular, shmegular everyday people.

We cannot and should not escape the much-needed conversation about the haves and have-nots in LA. AND — we can have this conversation with compassion. Many of the performers of the evening were victims themselves or were otherwise impacted and chose to help out how they know best: performing.

CalifoOOoOoRn-yuhhhhhh

John C. Reilly of Step Brothers (2008) fame hosted the evening with a dark humor and candor one could expect from a comic experiencing trauma (he shared his home burned down).

The sets were stripped down bringing back memories of Punk Goes Acoustic (2003) and enabled an intimate candlelight vigil atmosphere despite the 4000-people capacity. Each group only came on for about 2-3 songs, some exclusively playing covers of inspiring songs about California or unity. At one point I was thinking to myself, “is this what it felt like watching John Lennon sing ‘Imagine’ or is this wildly cringy?”

Crowd vibes were understandably way off, considering the first fire broke out barely a month before. It was clear we were all yearning for a place to come together offline to mourn and help each other. But like many shows post-Covid, concert etiquette seems like a relic of the past. How do we visibly show excitement to see our favorite bands perform in an intimate setting without losing sight of what brought us there in the first place?

The Hollywood Palladium is a venue that has a general admission standing room area and a seated balcony for “VIP”. The sets were solemn and on the quieter side which meant that sound from the balcony carried more than it would for a plugged in set. Reilly called attention to the balcony several times throughout the evening to quiet down and respect the space which eventually escalated to him telling them to “shut the fuck up” — which was met from cheers from the GA crowd.

Overall, I can’t say it was a particularly “fun” night but seeing stripped down performances from some of indie’s biggest performers was memorable and enjoyable. Seeing bands in this format emphasizes the “it factor” required to command a Wednesday night crowd raising money for natural disaster victims. Major kudos to St. Vincent, Hayley Williams, Rilo Kiley, and MUNA for lighting up the room!

Ch-check One-Two

Until I can get a real camera, please enjoy my grainy iPhone video! (or enjoy this HD compilation from YouTube; you won’t hurt my feelings)