Less than three weeks after a series of historic wildfires killed 29 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures in the Los Angeles area, more than two dozen of music’s biggest names have gathered for the FireAid benefit concert: “an evening of music and solidarity,” as organizers describe it, meant to raise money to provide relief to affected Angelenos and to “prevent future fire disasters throughout Southern California.”
In fact, FireAid encompasses two concerts — one held at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome and the other about a mile north on Prairie Avenue at the Kia Forum. Acts on the bill include Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Green Day, Joni Mitchell, Olivia Rodrigo, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Peso Pluma, Stevie Nicks, No Doubt and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many others. Produced by a team of music-industry veterans led by Irving Azoff and his family, FireAid is scheduled to begin Wednesday at 6 p.m. Pacific time and will be live-streamed on an array of platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Max, Apple TV+, Prime Video and Twitch. Connie and Steve Ballmer, who own the Clippers as well as Intuit Dome and the Forum, have pledged to match all donations made during the show.
The Times’ Mikael Wood and August Brown are on site and will provide live updates as they happen.
5:45 p.m. Hello from the floor at the Forum for the early shift of FireAid, which may not quite be Music’s Biggest Night (that’s the Grammys on Sunday), but it certainly feels like it given the sheer star caliber of lineups here and at Intuit Dome a little later. Dave Matthews dropped off the bill for a family emergency, but still in store here are Alanis Morissette, Anderson .Paak, John Mayer, Dawes, Graham Nash, Green Day, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, No Doubt, P!nk, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stephen Stills, Stevie Nicks and the Black Crowes. Interested to see how Dawes performs given two members lost homes or studios in Altadena. (August Brown)
6:11 p.m. And greetings from a very empty Intuit Dome, where the music is supposed to get underway at 7:30 — a message that appears to have reached the people of L.A. loud and clear. FireAid organizers have said the Forum bill leans rock while the lineup at Intuit is more pop. Wonder what Rod Stewart (who’s on the bill here) thinks about that. (Mikael Wood)
7:02 p.m. Green Day kicking this off with an elegant version of “Last Night on Earth” only to bring out another Billie from the second show down the road: Eilish, who came out to sing the second verse. (AB)
7:04 p.m. Intuit Dome is showing the Forum performances on the arena’s so-called Halo Board, and the two Billies drew a huge cheer from the crowd here. (MW)
7:17 p.m “Here at the Forum,” comedian Billy Crystal said, “the goal is to raise more money than the Dodgers spent on free agents.” They’re off to a good start–Crystal announced U2 just called in a million dollar donation. He also acknowledged losing his own home in the Palisades Fire. “These are the clothes I fled in,” he said, explaining that he looks like an evacuee or “somebody who robbed a 7/11.” He said that this gig had echoes of a similar fundraising host gig he took on after 9/11. “Now I’m one of the hurting thousands asking ‘have you seen my church, have you seen my town?” (AB)
7:18 p.m. Nice monologue from Crystal, who’s been doing this kind of thing — threading the needle between humor and pathos — for … what? Half a century? “One city, one heart,” he concludes. (MW)
7:24 p.m. Hopeful vibes from Alanis Morrissette, whose “Hand in My Pocket” and “Thank U” carried an air of gratitude and resilience as she wore an “I Heart LA” shirt: a “colorful, Wild place,” as she called it. (AB)
7:27 p.m. Alanis Morissette singing “Thank U” is a great opportunity to ponder one of the wildest opening lyrics in pop history: “How ‘bout getting off of these antibiotics?” (MW)
7:30 p.m. If you hold an all-star concert in L.A. and you don’t have Sheila E show up to whale on the timbales — as Ms. E just did with Anderson .Paak — did the concert really happen? (MW)
7:32 p.m. Glad they’re making ample time for individual horror stories about surviving the fires. “I wish it was just a terrible dream or a nightmare,” one Altadena resident said in a video. “Everything I’m wearing was provided by someone else. But I’m a carpenter, I want to rebuild Altadena. There are brighter days ahead.” (AB)
7:39 p.m. Crowd goes absolutely ham to Dr. Dre popping out for “Still D.R.E.” And “California Love” With Anderson .Paak. The Azoff Rolodex goes deep. (AB)
7:41 p.m. Crowd in here includes very soused Gen Xers who got a babysitter so they could happily justify dropping a grand on a big night out for fire relief. (AB)
7:42 p.m. Crowd at Intuit (which is nearing a full house) is older than I would’ve expected — but, as August suggests, FireAid tickets weren’t cheap. (MW)
7:50 p.m. “I can’t think of anyone better to console us than Joni Mitchell,” Morrissette said, introducing the doyenne of the California canyons to perform the regal and resonant “Both Sides Now,” with a stripped back version of her Joni Jam band. “I really don’t know life at all,” she sang to close on a plaintive note. A reminder to Cherish your L.A. treasures while we’ve still got them. (AB)
7:52 p.m. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Mitchell perform several times in the past couple of years — that may have been the strongest she’s sounded yet. (MW)
7:56 p.m. Members of the Williams family from Altadena recalled onstage, “At 3:30 in morning, the warning hit our phones. We grabbed what we could — our grandmothers special clock, our father’s ashes, our 47-year-old parrot Hank. Among the five of us standing here, we lost four homes and we’re struggling to find places to live. We love our community — we’re all grieving immense loss.”
“At our mother’s home, everything was destroyed except her front door,” they said. “It stands. It’s a sign, because that door was always open.” (AB)
8:08 p.m. Poignant lyrics from the band Dawes, whose singer and drummer both lost homes and studios in Altadena. “You’ve got that special kind of sadness, a tragic set of charms / That only comes from time spent in Los Angeles / Makes me want to wrap you in my arms.” This city can feel like it’s got disaster in its bones right now and surviving is a mark of making a life here.
Then they brought out Stephen Stills and Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” A reminder of all the music history that went up in this blaze, too. (AB)
8:13 p.m. Graham Nash joins his old bandmate, Stephen Stills, to dispense a bit of local mythology — “Whenever Los Angeles gets into trouble, the musicians are right there,” he says — and a comforting rendition of “Teach Your Children.” (MW)
8:22 p.m. “If you’re hurting, I’m hurting with you,” said Pink in an all-black funereal outfit. “I’m gonna keep my feet on the ground tonight,” she promised, alluding to her usual aerial routines, but sang a knockout take of “Me and Bobby McGee,” a song she said brought her comfort in bad times. (AB)
8:28 p.m. Pink digs deep into her classic-rock bag for a scorching version of (Led Zeppelin’s version of) “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” (MW)
8:35 p.m. Samuel L. Jackson is starting the show here at Intuit Dome by shouting out the first responders in the house: “We love our firefighters and we need to help them,” Jackson says. Then he introduces Rod Stewart as a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — and his former neighbor. L.A.! (MW)
8:36 p.m. Can you imagine the Samuel L Jackson / Rod Stewart dinner parties we’ve been missing out on? Rod doing the Ezekiel 25:17 speech? Sam covering “Maggie May?” (AB)
8:39 p.m. “Here’s a new song,” Stewart says. “Not.” It’s “Maggie May,” of course, a song nobody in history has ever been sad to hear. Invite Rod to everything, is what I say. (MW)
