Great American Music Hall

Friday night was "A Night With Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson" at Great American Music Hall, as a part of Noise Pop Festival in SF. As usual I had some friends join me onstage for certain songs. As Clyde Petersen (Your Heart Breaks) was walking offstage someone yelled "Was that a dude or a girl?" Then Dave End danced in a princess dress & I heard some chins hit the floor. Then Malcolm Rollick sang with me looking like queer Raggedy Andy. They all came back up to dance with me, Aesop Rock, and Rob Sonic, Jeremy Fish, and Alex Pardee for the big Tits Up finale.

Of course there were some people who were like "WHAT THE FUCK?!" There is a lot of homophobia (and folkaphobia) in the hip hop community and I just need to give MAJOR props to Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz for being such good guys and having the balls to not only invite me to share a stage with them but to let the show erupt into a colorful queer spectacle in front of their fans and let that be NORMAL and not a mockery of queer culture. What that shows young people (and old people) in the hip hop community is groundbreaking and takes huge balls.

Standing up against homophobia by just letting gayness be a regular part of reality is powerful. Letting people see that they don't have to be reduced to a label or a box or a genre is also powerful.

My friends are fucking rad and are changing the way people see things.

The show was fun, but it was so much more than that.

It was a mighty force of love and acceptance.

Read the review and check out the slideshow http://treeswingers.com/2011/02/26/noise-pop-2011-aesop-rock-kimya-dawson-at-the-great-american-music-hall-22511/