When the fires first broke out in Los Angeles, San Francisco music promoter KC Turner was on his honeymoon in Oaxaca, trying not to get sucked into looking at his phone too much. After all, he figured, there was only so much he could do from afar.
That lasted for a couple days — a couple days of watching as an exponentially growing list of friends, loved ones and colleagues from the music industry lost their homes or livelihoods or both. Then Turner did what he does best: He organized a show.
“When so many people have been displaced and lost everything, sitting back is not the move,” says Turner, now back home in the Bay Area. “If you’re a gazillionaire, you should donate money. If you’re a concert promoter, you put a concert together.”
The result is a daylong benefit show on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Novato’s HopMonk Tavern, featuring an eclectic bill of Bay Area artists in folk, rock and roots music. A longtime promoter who’s well-connected in the singer-songwriter scene, Turner cast a wide net, hitting up even musicians he figured were longshots — like Oakland’s Grammy-winning blues star Fantastic Negrito, who’s often on tour. But he happened to be home on that date, and he said yes immediately.
Additional notable names on the lineup include Berkeley bluegrass veteran Laurie Lewis; Petaluma folk singer Sean Hayes; San Francisco indie rocker Megan Slankard; North Bay siblings Alex and Ben Morrison of Americana act The Brothers Comatose, who’ll perform as a duo; and San Francisco singer-songwriter and car-free street enthusiast John Elliott.
Tickets are $50, but attendees are welcome to donate more; all proceeds from the show will go to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. That means everyone involved — including the artists, sound engineer and venue staff — is donating their time.
Turner says no one needed convincing. Even the show’s poster artist, Katie Kincade, was honored to be able to donate her work, he says. She’s from Los Angeles originally, and lost her own home in Sonoma County in a fire last year.
In other parts of the Bay Area, likeminded artists have organized their own fire relief fundraisers, including one DJ night at Night Heron in Oakland on Jan. 17 and another at Mothership in San Francisco on Jan. 19.
As for the speed with which Turner threw his benefit together, he notes that this isn’t his first rodeo. In 2017, he organized a house concert as a benefit for victims of the Tubbs Fire, raising more than $13,000. In 2018, in the wake of the Camp Fire, he moved to HopMonk, hosting a benefit that raised $20,000.
So he hasn’t been surprised, exactly, by the local music community’s eagerness to get involved. “It’s the purest kind of show. It’s really cool to be able to put together a concert or play in a band and have it actually impact someone’s life,” he says. “I think so many people, musicians and fans alike, are just looking for a way to help.”
The L.A. Fire Department Foundation Benefit Concert starts at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26, at HopMonk Tavern. Tickets ($50 and up) and more info here.
Other Bay Area parties raising funds for fire relief include:
‘From the Bay to LA,’ Friday, Jan. 17, at Oakland’s Night Heron, with DJs Makeroom, Lefty, Jenset, Lexapeel and Junior.
‘The Bay Loves LA,’ Sunday, Jan. 19, at San Francisco’s Mothership, with support from Fault Radio and DJs Three6Sashia, Joko Homo, DJ Doorknob, Nikk Benoit and more.
