During a concert that featured Gwen Stefani, Carrie Underwood and surprise appearances by Beyonce and Sting, the rock star was Narendra Modi, sworn in just this May, the prime Minister is to India what Pope Francis is to the Catholic Church: a man for the 21st Century. For the West, India may well have trouble shrugging off its aura of 19th century colonialism, Lord Kitchener, sitars, Bollywood and the Beatles being conned by Maharishi Yogi. Plus the definition of extreme poverty. That’s changing.
In the 21st century, you’ve heard another cliche: India is where all telemarketing gets sourced out to and at the Central Park “Global Citizen Festival” yesterday from 4pm – 10pm, its leader vowed to eradicate outdoor defecation in the great country and put a toilet in every home by 2019. On Saturday afternoon Narendra Modi, was a charismatic, amused, and forthright figure standing on the stage at the Great Lawn and speaking to a captive audience of 60,000 plus. “This is a great city. It has assimilated the world in itself. I am delighted to be here in the open Central Park and not inside a closed conference room. I feel a current of hope in this park…” The PM said. And later “Some believe that the world changes with the wisdom of the old. I think that the idealism, innovation, energy and ‘can-do’ attitude of the youth is even more powerful.”
Then Modi ended his speech with a benediction we all can understand: “May the force be with you”.
Look: nature abhors a vacuum, so if dysentery and Ebola doesn’t kill off the helpless and poor young, something else will get em, and please don’t feel superior in any way to these unfortunates. As Homeboy Sandman recently noted, our 99% is the world’s 1%. None of us could rise above it. So there is no excuse not to try and stem the tide. There is no reason not to attempt to end extreme poverty, the Global Poverty and its Global Citizen festival is to be commended for raising awareness of “Pee and Poop” along with vaccines for all as the charity aspect of yesterdays concert. Check out their website here.
Despite the extreme concerns we all have with the charities providing money where it should go, do the words Haiti mean anything to you?, certainly the hope is Hugh Evans, the 31 year Aussie responsible for this, knows what he is doing. According to Roger Friedman’s Showbiz 411, questions abound here:
“I’ve asked Global Poverty for their Form 990 for 2013, but they’ve so far evaded me. Jane Atkinson, head of PR, will only say they’ve filed an extension with the IRS and the report isn’t due until November. So if you give them money this year, be aware they still have no paperwork for last year.
All we have still is the report for 2012, which shows a deficit of $1.356 million.
The 2012 report also claims over $2.5 million listed for unspecified, miscellaneous expenses.
We learn some salient points from the 2012 report: four directors of Global Poverty loaned them a total of $230,000 to put on the Stevie Wonder-Alicia Keys- John Mayer- Kings of Leon concert. It’s unclear if the loans were repaid.”
Hmmm, well, also according to Friedman:
“Three Global Poverty execs–CEO Hugh Evans, COO Simon Moss and Operations Manager Wei Soo claimed salaries of $77,000 apiece.
There is no mention of a man named Bradden Young, advertised as Executive Producer of the Central Park concerts and other Global Poverty shows. In fact, Global Poverty has never said a word about 39 year old Young’s untimely death this summer. He died at home in Washington DC on July 4th. The medical examiner concluded it was from “acute alcohol intoxication” and by accident. Very little else is known, and no formal announcement has been issued by Global Poverty.”
Nobody is getting rich on $77K a year and Evans honored Bradden Young last night, I don’t see it matters that Bradden died of alcoholic consumption. Still, where is the money going?
This was the third “Global Citizen Festival” where 60K music fans and concerned citizens win tickets by completing tasks to aid the extreme poor and if at this time you are wondering when I’m gonna get to the music, you know how I felt, standing for six hours (and, ironically enough, without access to toilets without losing my prime real estate) on a glorious afternoon at a gig dated to coincide with the convening of the UN General Assembly, so politics counts and speeches are endless. But music is why we are really here. In 2012, Neil Young headlined, and in 2013 it was Stevie Wonder (reviewed here), last night the music was even better -well except for Stevie!
Tiesto is the Dutch superstar DJ and producer who stands behind his console performing magic. while I wasn’t a fan in the past, he converted me with one incredible house track after another, culminating in a devastating one two, his current hit “Wasted” followed by a terrific remix of Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be”. One of the best sets of the night even without the fire and brimstone EDM brings to mind, and including a live (!) singer, it was terrific – B+
Alicia keys played her execrable (sic) “We Are Here” with a Palestinian and an Israeli while throwing out bon mots like “Justice is the opposite of poverty.” – D
The Roots were stymied by having their set stopped for a long segment about the lack of drinking water, before the Roots covered a terrific song about the scarcity of water by somebody whose name I couldn’t catch called “Water, Don’t Be Scared Of Me” (?). I wish I knew more because with a full contingent of horns and back up singers it was a great cover of a great song. Almost as good, the Roots took on Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” and didn’t embarrass themselves. I am no Roots fan but I was impressed – B+
I wasn’t surprised fun. were so good. “Some Nights” was built for something like the Global Citizen’s gig and they performed it with gusto and passion and pride. This time round I took my eyes off Nate long enough to notice Jack but still your eyes drift back to Nate who lead the audience in a fine all too apt “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” . I’ve always loved the band and they were just terrific – B+
On the other hand, Carrie Underwood, while more believable as a rocker than as Maria Trapp, was too loud and the band were all wrong. Towards the end she belted, and I mean belted though the blogosphere claim lip synced, her way through “Everybody Hurts” and ended her set with a gigantic singalong to “Before He Cheats” – C+
But the night belonged to No Doubt. Here is the setlist and they encored with Sting on “Message In A Bottle”:
Hella Good
Sunday Morning
Underneath It All
Just a Girl
Simple Kind of Life
It’s My Life
(Talk Talk cover)
Push and Shove
Hey Baby
Don’t Speak
Spiderwebs
No Doubt played at the the Forum, a dry run for this gig, on September 23rd, but otherwise they haven’t played in a year, so over and above the sheer drama of Central Park’s Great Lawn, they hadn’t really played together in awhile, and lemme tell you, show me a set that opens with “Hella Good” and whose penultimate number was a thrilling singalong to “Don’t Speak” and I’ll show you an impossible to beat set. I’ve never seen No Doubt live -I’ve seen Jay Z at least twice a year for the past six years including this one, so No Doubt was my largest reason for going to the festival and it was worth it. I have seen Gwen solo (at MSG) and she was hella good, but the woman was a non stop skanking, dancing, singing dynamo as the lead singer from heaven. In a night without a bad set, this was a magical performance. I have nothing NB wise to compare it to, but I will say this, Helen Bach mentioned she saw Paramore open for them a coupla years ago, and Gwen is Haley done right. “I’m just a girl in Central Park” Gwen sang. Not just a girl. – A
Meanwhile we couldn’t get Hugh Jackman off the stage, who along with a handful of other acting A Listers, including Jessica Elba, Ryan Reynolds and Olivia Wilde, introduced the politicians.
It is rare for Jay Z to make a misstep but opening his gig with “Empire State Of Mind” was to start at the top, a great performance of a song I don’t love (odd with Alicia Keys right there he didn’t bring her out to sing the hook). Bringing out Beyonce didn’t make up for not sending the audience home with “Empire”. It was a good set, heavy on the hits of course, and he included personal fave “On To The Next One”. I’ve seen Jay so many times, I saw no reason to wait for the struggle out of Central Park, and I left quarter of an hour early and was walking past the New York Historical Society on West 81st Street when four teens jumped on the steps, held hands and sang along to the sound of “Holy Grail” drifting over from the Park. It was a New York moment. The Prime Minister of India wishing the force be with us was a New York moment as well. – B
Next year? U2 headline, I bet you.
Grade: B+
