On stage at A Concert for Altadena, featuring the victims of the Dawes Fire and many other events to commemorate the anniversary of the Eaton Fire.
When Liz Wilson watched the Eaton Fire progress from her home in Pasadena last year, she knew life would never be the same in her corner of Southern California. On Wednesday, the first anniversary of the disaster, A Concert for Altadena seemed like the most optimistic place to be.
“People not only lost their homes, they lost their community,” Wilson said, in the lobby of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where dozens of local acts had gathered for the benefit show. Organizers saved it to raise money for the Altadena Builds Back Foundation and to give locals something hopeful to attend to on the painful day of January 7th.
“This is not just a fundraiser, but a way to reconnect and show support for the community that is surviving,” he said. “Altadena was and is an arts community, that's a big part of it. We have a lot of friends and neighbors who are still figuring out if they're going to come back, if they're going to be able to rebuild. The further you get from it, you might forget about it. But we haven't.”
The anniversary of the Eaton and Palisades fires, which kicked off one of the most difficult years in the city's recent history, was largely marked by quieter reflections on loss and how much work still needs to be done. But Altadena in particular was a historic community of musicians and artists. For them, coming together for a show seemed like a natural way to honor the occasion and look to the future.
Kevin Lyman, founder of the Vans Warped Tour and USC music industry professor, is a two-decade resident of Altadena who was displaced from his home for four months after the Eaton fire. He organized the concert so that the community could use the day to reconnect and focus on the work that remains to be done.
“In this business I have to be optimistic and every day I see more trucks entering Altadena with lumber and workers. You leave for a few days and you see the structure of a new house. But then you go to the next block and there are five empty lots,” he said.
“One of the hardest parts is that if you live up there, you can walk two miles away and life just goes on,” he added. “People need to be reminded that we are still here, that they may still need help. The artists who survived and recovered are here supporting the artists who have not.”
Actor and Altadena resident John C. Reilly hosted the evening, highlighting the resilience of rebuilding efforts and taking shots at utility company Southern California Edison, whose team lit the fire: “A company that prioritized profits for shareholders over improving infrastructure,” as he put it. He mocked President Trump's reactions to the fire: “Did he tell us to go rake leaves? Fuck you, buddy.”
The night highlighted grassroots activism from organizers like Heavenly Hughes of My Tribe Rise, who led the crowd in a raucous chant of “Altadena is not for sale.” But the live performances found shock to the city's spirit as a musical city. Los Angeles Latin rock group Ozomatli began the night with a jubilant jam through the hallways, while Everclear's Art Alexakis noted between riffs that the Eaton fire displaced him: “I had to live in a hotel for five months, but I'm lucky.”
Travis Cooper drove from Northern California to attend the show, moved by the way Altadena maintained its cultural identity after the Eaton Fire. His parents lost a house in a fire in Redding a few years ago, so “I can relate to how devastating that feels,” he said. “Even the threat of it growing up was horrible, so for that to happen was really another level. But my parents had people donate clothes, places to stay, and that meant a lot to them, so we wanted to come support this community as well.”
The night's headline act was Altadena folk-rock group Dawes, whose founders lost homes and equipment in the Eaton Fire. They have become neighborhood emissaries within the music industry and performed at last year's Grammys just weeks after the fire.
At the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, they led a round of acts that included Brad Paisley, Brandon Flowers of the Killers, Aloe Blacc, Jenny Lewis and Rufus Wainwright. They were accompanied by vocal virtuosos Lucius and blues-rock performers Judith Hill and Eric Krasno, each an integral part of the local music community trying to rebuild after the Eaton fire.
Altadena is a deeply intergenerational community, and the audience felt the decades of Los Angeles music history when Stephen Stills sang Buffalo Springfield's “For What It's Worth” alongside a younger artist like Lord Huron covering the Kinks' “Strangers.”
Dawes is a veteran Los Angeles group, and songs like “All Your Favorite Bands” had a new texture in light of how the fire upended the lives of so many artists. “I hope the world sees the same person you always were to me,” Taylor Goldsmith sang. “May all your favorite bands stay together.”
For those bands still trying to stay together, the night was redemptive. Jeffrey Paradise, the Poolside frontman who lost his home in the Palisades fire, was the DJ for the concert's official after-party. He has since moved to Glassell Park and acknowledged that the fires remain a challenging issue, for him and his friends trying to support the displaced.
“It's hard to talk about it because so many things get mixed up,” he said. “It was the worst year of my life, but it was also fantastic and heartwarming to see people's support. It's very difficult to answer how you're doing because I don't have an easy answer,” he said.
A concert like this was a way to acknowledge the severity of last year's loss, but also raise money to help everyone return to the land, the people and the music they love.
“It's a disaster and we're overcoming a disaster. I want to be resilient and help others and do what I can to move forward,” she said. “It forces you to reinvent who you are and redefine what matters. I have no choice not to do it.”
