Some 4,500 people showed up at the Tucson Convention Center to be a part of unity and community and moving forward after the Jan. 8 mass shooting.
But that doesn’t mean they didn’t want to rock out a bit while they were at it.
Granted, the benefit concert for the Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding on Thursday night wasn’t the typical rock scene.
Sure, there was the guy with the long hair in the top hat with a rattlesnake affixed to the brim.
And the one who exclaimed a performer was “sick!” — but meant, in the contemporary vernacular, as a high compliment and not a statement of health.
There were the occasional pink-streaked tresses. And a bit of leather.
But despite strains from electronic keyboards and guitars, not to mention a particular hard-rocking headliner who goes by Alice, it was a rather polite crowd.
An accidental kick to the chair in cramped rows drew apologies. Hugs abounded. Applause was generous — not only for rockers Jackson Browne and Alice Cooper, who organized the event, but for the dozen other acts, as well as several speakers.
And when Jennifer Warnes belted out Amazing Grace a cappella, thousands hushed in reverence.
Until they quietly joined in, and voices filled the empty spaces.
“What happened on Jan. 8 was an aberration in our community,” said Ron Barber, the wounded district director of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who walked slowly to the stage with the support of a cane and his family. “It was not who we are. What happened afterward is who we are as a community.”
That outpouring of love and goodwill and prayer? “That’s the real Tucson, and you’re here tonight,” he said.
Barber, who received a sustained standing ovation, said the concert funds and other donations would benefit a foundation that will sponsor anti-bullying efforts in schools and focus on ways to address mental illness.
There were other moments of solemnity.
Emily Nottingham, the mother of slain Giffords’ aide Gabe Zimmerman, said her son would agree that Tucson, at its best, is a caring, compassionate community that loves the desert and the people in it.
In truth, she said, sometimes Tucson falls short of being its best. And she said she hopes the fund will help the community more often reach that goal.
But there was also celebrating, for the deep power of Sam Moore to the folksy trill of Dar WIlliams. And when Ozomatli, a band that boycotted Arizona in the wake of its new immigration law, came to the stage, it was officially a full-on rock concert.
Read more of this story in Friday's Arizona Daily Star. Check back online Friday for a review of the concert.
