UCSB’s independent radio station, KCSB 91.9 FM, and The Scimitar Cooperative have come together to bring Santa Barbara a unique concert of music and dance on Wednesday, March 5 at the La Casa de la Rasa, 601 E. Montecito St, at 7:30p.m. The $10 all-ages concert will have a beer-garden for the 21+ crowd and Mexican food available for purchase. There will also be outreach by Santa Barbara-area community organizations and an open house by the Bici Centro bike collective.
Headlining the concert is the New York City band The World/Inferno Friendship Society, an eight-piece “rock orchestra” known for their intense, circus-like stage performances. The band recently released their 2007 album, Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s Twentieth Century, a rock opera examining contemporary history.
Also performing is Ollin, of East Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara band Oso. Ollin, formed by twin brothers, features traditional Mexican-music inspired punk rock with influences from Irish melodies, Klezmer riffs, German beer polkas, and African syncopations, while Oso is a “math rock” indie-band. There will also be a performance by the Radical Women’s Performance Troupe, a new circus company from Santa Barbara.
The concert is being staged at La Casa de la Rasa community center where The Scimitar Cooperative and KCSB have been staging concerts for years but never one of this scope and magnitude. “KCSB has worked with La Casa and the Scimitar Co-Op before, but never in such a multi-faceted way,” said Joshua Redman, KCSB’s General Manager. While the initial draw of the concert may be its headliner, it provides an opportunity for others” voices, both musical and informative, to be heard. “The night showcases exciting local talent too, and calls attention to our non-profit organizations and other socially-aware Santa Barbara groups,” continued Redman. All the proceeds from the concert benefit the non-commercial KCSB and La Casa de la Rasa community center.
The Bici Centro bike collective will host a pre-concert reception at 7p.m. at their brand new shop. Bici Centro is a volunteer-run community organization that teaches bicycle repair classes, recycles junk bicycles, and runs a bicycle-oriented youth outreach program.
For those that can’t attend the concert but still want to hear the music, KCSB will be broadcasting it live on air, something which Redman hopes to do more of in the future.