CAKE singer/songwriter John McCrea at the Independent, 7/1/10. Photo by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
July 3, 2010
The solar wheels keep on turning for widely acclaimed CAKE, who returned Thursday to San Francisco to perform another sold out benefit concert at the Independent.
The eco/environmentally conscious pop/rock outfit from Sacramento, who rely on solar energy to power their music studios, held the concert to raise money to help solarize the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Community Center, “a non-profit that helps more than 600 children, seniors, and families each day in San Francisco, with a focus on low to moderate income families,” said Paul Scott, Executive Director of One Atmosphere, a non-profit organization “dedicated to combating global warming whose prior work with the Sierra Club and the City of San Francisco has been enthusiastically endorsed by Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, and many others.”
Dubbed “Climatepalooza,” the benefit concert which included support performances by King City and The California Honeydrops, raised as much as $25 thousand for the community center’s solar project.
Mayor Gavin Newsom, Senator Mark Leno, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and SF Democratic Party Chair Aaron Peskin enthusiastically endorsed the fundraiser.
But it was Peskin and political activist Julian Davis who teamed up to connect CAKE with One Atmosphere to organize the benefit concert.
Davis was also instrumental in pairing CAKE with Proposition H, a failed 2008 ballot measure that would have transformed the City and County of San Francisco into a clean, renewable energy powerhouse. PG&E, the measure’s primary opponent, spent $10 million to defeat the measure, hoodwinking voters with a deluge of slick mailers and TV ads. Mayor Newsom, who owns stock in fossil energy interests, opposed the measure calling it “cynical.”
“How much do you love CAKE?” beamed Davis during CAKE’s encore. “As Paul (Scott) mentioned, every dollar that you spent on your ticket tonight is going to put a solar roof on the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Community Center – and that’s pretty cool.”
Julian Davis addresses CAKE fans during a sold out solar energy benefit concert held at the Independent, 7/1/10.
“Tragically, we are living through the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history,” Davis continued. “We don’t need to kid ourselves that anything we are doing here tonight will stop the flow of oil into the Gulf, but what we are doing here tonight will help stop the flow of fossil fuels into our economy and our way of life. So I want you to pat yourselves on the back, not only because you made it out to the Independent on a Thursday night to see some of your favorite bands, but also because you are all a part of a music-powered clean energy revolution – you are all a part of the climate solution. Let’s give a big thank you to CAKE – these guys rock!”
And rock, they did.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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