“Welcome to Berniechella,” Maggie Rogers advised a crowd of an estimated 36,000 individuals as she took to the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon.
Certainly, these in L.A. who didn’t make the trek all the way down to Coachella this weekend nonetheless had an opportunity at a star-studded present as Rogers, Neil Younger and Joan Baez all carried out at Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s L.A. cease on their Combating Oligarchy tour, calling upon all in attendance to tackle President Donald Trump and the billionaire class supporting his administration.
“We’re going to make our revolution with pleasure,” Sanders advised the group as he thanked the musicians who performed earlier than his speech. “We’re going to sing and dance our option to victory in opposition to hatred and divisiveness.”
Sanders’ tour has additionally stopped in cities like Denver and Tempe, Arizona, and so they’ll hit a number of extra markets, together with Salt Lake Metropolis, Nampa, Idaho, Bakersfield, Folsom and Missoula, Montana, within the coming days.
“We’re in a second of extraordinary hazard,” Sanders advised the group, additional stating that the Trump administration is “shifting us into an authoritarian type of society.”
“Mr. Trump, we’re not going there,” Sanders stated.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., the rally additionally featured artists together with Jeff Rosenstock, Indigo De Souza, Purple Pears and David Longstreth of the Soiled Projectors. The performances have been sandwiched between speeches from academics, nurses, union heads, metropolis council members and congress-members advocating for reforms each wide-ranging and extra particular, from common healthcare to tenant rights, to defending immigrants to raised pay for manufacturing assistants in Hollywood. The overarching theme although, because the “combating oligarchy” title would recommend, was tackling wealth disparity within the nation.
Baez took the stage simply earlier than 1 p.m., opening with the folks tune “Ain’t Gonna Let No one Flip Me Round,” with the group erupting into cheers as she sang up to date lyrics saying, “Ain’t gonna let no white supremacists flip me round” and “ain’t gonna let these awful billionaires flip me round.” She adopted with “There However For Fortune,” in addition to a touching cowl of John Lennon’s “Think about.”
Baez has voiced her disdain for the Trump administration as lately as final month, when she went on John Mulaney’s All people’s Reside With John Mulaney and stated that “our democracy goes up in flames.”
Rogers carried out after, maintaining on the rally’s theme of change as she opened with “Totally different Type of World” earlier than enjoying “Gentle On,” her hit single off her 2019 album Heard It in a Previous Life. She additionally performed breakthrough single “Alaska,” then introduced Baez again out because the duo carried out Bob Dylan’s people basic “Don’t Assume Twice, It’s All Proper.” In classic people protest trend, they completed with a duet of “America The Stunning,” with Baez including one closing verse for “sisterhood from sea to shining sea.”
Younger received the ultimate slot earlier than Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders took the stage, popping out together with his electrical guitar and harmonica, chanting a “take America again” name and response with the group and punctuating the mantra with energy chords. Younger, who’s performed Sanders rallies prior to now, additionally voiced his frustration with the Trump administration final week, writing on his web site that he was apprehensive Trump would bar him from returning to the U.S. after his upcoming European tour over his criticism of the president.
Younger began with “Rainbow of Colours,” his 2019 tune with Loopy Horse, the place Younger sings of the variety within the U.S. and that “nobody goes to whitewash these colours away.” He went again to the “take America again chant” as he performed the opening chords to his protest anthem, “Rockin’ Within the Free World.” Baez and Rogers got here again out by the tune’s second verse, singing “energy to the individuals” within the background.
“Thanks, of us,” Younger advised the group as he launched AOC. “Thanks for being right here this weekend, subsequent weekend and the week after that till we get issues straight. Maintain coming again.”
