The University Daily Kensen
Thursday, October 19, 2000
The Etc. Shop
Music
Section B • Page 4
The Etc. Shop
928 Mass. • 843-0611 Bristol
Indigo Girls strike a chord with environmental message
Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Sailors perform at the Lied Center Saturday night. The duo encouraged the audience to fill cut cards protesting the slaughter of wild buffaloes in Yellowstone National Park and the dumping of nuclear waste on Native American land. Photo by Jaime Roper KANSAN
By Emily Hughey
Kansan editorial editor
It's nice to know celebrities are out there who crusade for worthy causes. It's even nicer when fans can support those causes simply by being entertained by their favorite artists.
Such was the scene at the Indigo Girls' Honor the Earth concert Saturday night at the Lied Center. Along with Shawn Mullins and Indigenous, the Girls strummed their guitars and wailed into microphones to stop environmental injustices against Native Americans.
Though the benefit concert was complete with messages encouraging activism against nuclear waste on native lands, the slaughtering of buffalo in Yellowstone National Park and clemency pleas for Leonard Peltier, music ruled the show.
Indigenous, a blues/rock band, took the stage first. The band's smooth guitar licks, paired with the deep, rich vocals of lead singer, Pte, set the audience swaving.
Even Shawn Mullins, who followed Indigenous, commented on the band's performance by confessing he was backstage dancing throughout the first set. Mullins, long-time friend of the Girls and native Georgian, brought an entirely different sound to the center. His smooth acoustic sound and low, raspy voice poured out like honey from the stage. He ended with his hit single, "Rockabye," an on-your-feet prelude to the Indigo Girls' opening
rendition of "Redemption Song."
Following their respectable folk/rock interpretation of Bob Marley's classic, the Indigo Girls matched both the energy of Indigenous and the personality of Mullins.
They seemed to hold nothing from the audience—except perhaps a few more hours of their music. The cathartic chorus of Emily Saliers' high and Amy Ray's low resonated in the Lied Center to favorites such as "Closer to Fine," "Power of Two" and "Galileo," among others.
In addition, the duo performed some songs off their new album, Retrospective. And after every tune
came a gracious "thanks y'all" from both musicians and a request or "I love you" from the audience.
After about an hour and 30 minutes of playing, the Indigo Girls' harmony came to a close with "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee," during which both Indigenous and Shawn Mullins shared the stage with the headliners.
Though benefit concerts often have a tendency to be laden with moralistic rhetoric, the Indigo Girls' Honor the Earth concert conveyed its intended messages while entertaining and energizing the audience.
Edited by Amy Randolph
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