This is what happens when you have a hipster running the city hall… are Los Angelinos ready for more stuff like this? Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is always concerned by (bad) music, will give you, in collaboration with Dim Mak Records, ‘LAoki’, a free Steve Aoki downtown LA on Saturday May 16th. The event will take place on Broadway between 4th and 6th streets, where a lot of things are going on these days — the new music place The Regent is close by. But to be able to attend the show, you will be required to sign up for more information on The Mayor’s Volunteer Corps.
What’s next? A free Kanye West concert for signing for the Marines? I exaggerate a bit but I don’t like this type of black-mailing system and I don’t want to get a solicitation every time Garcetti decide he needs some volunteers to clean up the LA river… I will clean it if I want, but some free Aoki concert is not going to help as far as I am concerned. I saw the beginning of his set at the Rose Bowl festival a few months ago, and he was a total bore…
In any case, they are expecting 5 to 10 thousands of concert goers, so expect a lot of chaos downtown with many street closures.
‘I wanted to do something big, not just the shows I always do, but something that gives back to Los Angeles, the city that raised me and built my career,’ declared Aoki to Billboard. ‘The Mayor and I thought it was a good idea to do something with community service that’s on the streets of downtown LA. So it’s more than just a show.’ But who is doing the community service in the story?
‘My whole career was built in Los Angeles, so it only made sense to do the biggest show of my life on the streets of downtown, just blocks from my label Dim Mak’s homebase,’ said Aoki, according to the LA Times. ‘Making it a free show is my thank you to the city that’s given me so much, but I also felt it was important to encourage others to give back as well.’
‘Steve Aoki is an artist who believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the community,’ declared councilman Jose Huizar to the Times. ‘By providing a free concert on historic Broadway in DTLA that requires concert goers to seek out information on volunteering, he is providing a vehicle to positively impact lives in our great city through the gift of music.’
Sure, because we all need a civic lesson from Aoki…This new concert is in line with Garcetti’s intention to transform downtown LA into a festival venue – he made Jay Z’s ‘Made in America’ possible, despite many complaints. By the way, Aoki was already playing at this festival, but LAoki is also a perfect opportunity for Aoki to promote his next album (‘Neon Future II’) which coincidently will be released a few days ahead of the show, on May 12th. When you talk about giving back to the community…