Ozomatli's Tribute

After a long week filled with non stop images of the horrific attack on New York City's World Trade Center it was time for a much needed distraction. Therefore when I received a call from Georgina Avilez of RL public relations I jumped at the opportunity to do "something" else. I took my wife Maya of wireimage.com and we took our cameras to cover the free show performed in the parking lot of Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. Parking was surprising easy to find right across the street in from of Johnny Depp's club, The Viper Room. We could already hear them going into their set that started at 1:00 on a hot sunny Saturday afternoon. Prior to the performance Ozomatli band members made these statements:

As much as I'm saddened by this I'm not surprised one bit. Cause there's millions of people all over the world that hate the US for doing the exact same thing to them for centuries. Only the US calls it "NATIONAL DEFENSE" not "terrorism". Because of this I feel that we had it coming and it was just a matter of time. Because of this, now the US can go and blow the fuck out of who ever they want and nobody's gonna say shit about it. Cause now "its our right".

Now I know that I and we (us) must fight that much harder to bring an end to all this. Meanwhile we must envision the world that we all want to live in and what that looks like. What's it gonna take?

I LOVE U ALL
EMBRACE THE CHAOS 911 01
WIL-DOG

First and foremost, my heart goes out to the families of the people who's lives were lost on 9-11's tragic day. Men women and children were lost, and I'm extremely saddened. Being a father of two, I can only empathize with the loss. Its unbearable to realize our govt. has had an influence to drive these people to terrorism, and to destroy the lives of other innocent bystanders. This kind of hate only creates more hate. This kind of action only gives terror. Revenge only leads to despair and inhumanity. Nothing can be solved this way. There has to be a better way. We must continue our struggle to prevent more situations of injustice around the world, because if we don't, things like this will just keep on coming. No country is too far, too foreign, too difficult to be impossible to come to an understanding. Things like hate, greed, power, money, among others, will only prevent us from coming to peace. Its probable that those 4 planes weren't the only plans of attack, there may have been more that were prevented by shutting down all airports, who knows, but we can't allow ourselves to live in a prison of fear by this. Fear is only one way for us to feel like we lost our freedom, or comfort. Let us ALL be the positivity in this struggle against ALL injustice, ALL inhumanity, ALL oppression. " ...to live in a world where all worlds can live..."

In peace and love.

Asdru

After their performance the band took time to sign autographs for the fans and get together for a photo op which I thought was mighty cool they way jumped toward the camera! Thanks guys for letting us take a break from reality even if it was just for an hour and remember, Embrace the Chaos...

A crowd scene from the vantage point of drummer Andrew Mendoza	Rapping to the tune "1,2,3,4" was Anthony 'Kanetic Source' Stout
After the performance Anthony Stout took a little time to sign some autographs for some eager fans	Asdrubal and Raul serenade the masses
Getting the crowd on their feet	Singer/trumpet player Asdrubal Sierra belts out the words to "Pa' Lante."
The horn section of OZOMATLI	Adding horns to the band is what gives OZOMATLI that distinct sound
A band shot of OZOMATLI after the performance. Kanetic Source the flying frontman!	Percussionist Jiro Yamamguchi keeps the fat beat
Justin Poree lays down the background beat on the timpanis	Guitarist Raul Pacheco strums those familiar cords to the OZOMATLI fans
Handling a variety of wind instruments was Ulises Bella	Ulises unites with percussionists Justin and Jiro
Sound off!	Bass player Wil Dog Abers knows how to pluck that bad boy!