Uniting and inspiring a harmonious crowd, Lucy Dacus, FINNEAS, Hayley Williams, Fred Armisen and more performed at the G*ve a F*ck L.A. benefit concert, hosted by John C. Reilly at the Hollywood Palladium Wednesday night. 

In an effort to raise money for One Voice, Altadena Girls, the Pasadena Humane Society and Friends in Deed — local organizations helping those affected by the Southern California wildfires — the concert offered concertgoers a memorable experience while championing support for the greater Los Angeles community during this crisis. 

Artists like Sasami, The Linda Lindas, St. Vincent and Phantom Planet played heartwarming, unifying songs, a number of them related to California or L.A. The crowd sang and swayed along to nearly each and every song, going through a wave of emotions as performers on stage continuously spoke about community and support.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

A standout set of the night was Hayley Williams, who performed covers of Failure’s “Daylight” and Björk’s “All Iis Full of Love” alongside Ken Andrews of the band Failure. Williams told the crowd the best thing for her to do when things are hard is “singing [her] favorite songs with a bunch of people.” 

The last song of the night was fittingly “California,” written and performed by Phantom Planet. The band invited all of the artists who performed back on stage and, in unison with the crowd, proudly sang, “California, here we come.”

In addition to the moving performances, an auction hosted in collaboration with Julien’s Auctions kicked off featuring Met Gala dresses, celebrity musicians’ tour clothing and other Hollywood memorabilia. All proceeds will go to support victims. The auction items will be available online on Julien’s Auctions’ website until Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.

Alternative/indie-pop artist Sasami performed her newly released song “In Love With a Memory,” which captivated the audience through its reminiscent lyrics and a unique French horn solo from Sasami herself. 

She said performing the solo felt very significant to her because she sees the French horn as a representation of her childhood in L.A. after attending Los Angeles County High School for the Arts to study classical French horn.

“I didn’t even think twice when I was asked [to perform],” Sasami said. “I grew up in Los Angeles, and it’s a place that’s really important to me, so it’s like the least that I could do.”

Sasami hopes that moving forward, people in the music industry should work to understand the environment, saying that wildfires are rooted in misunderstanding of the land we live on. She hopes that tragedies like the wildfires serve as a reminder to have a connection to the Earth.

“Ultimately, music helps people get more in touch with their emotions,” Sasami said. “The more people are in touch with that part of their humanity, the more likely they are to make decisions that cause less harm and take care of more people and take care of the planet.”

Drew Ariana was one of the many volunteers who helped facilitate the benefit concert. Ariana said it was amazing to see the city come together to support those impacted by the wildfires.

“Just having a concert like this, where you’re taking a lot of local L.A. artists who are coming together for this good cause, just kind of goes to show that the ties between artists and the city are really close,” Ariana said. “I think everybody is very happy to be involved and to be able to show that L.A. does have a community, and we’re here to support each other.”

He said that there was a lot of immediate response from the community and country in the form of donations and volunteering following the fires, but that response was particularly prevalent in the first couple of weeks.

“It’s cool to be involved in something that is a little bigger picture and is focused more on long-term help for these residents who have lost their homes,” Ariana said. “Just being able to pair with some bigger organizations to really make some impactful change.”

Tia Marone, who was among the concertgoers at the event, thanked the event organizers for using their voices for good and bringing L.A. residents together.

“It’s been a really beautiful coming together of people,” Marone said. “Seeing how they quickly jumped into action with what they can and being able to pull everyone out here for this, it’s a really beautiful thing.”