It’s been a tough couple of months for the live music scene in North Carolina after the passing of the extremely controversial HB2 into law. Many bands and artists have been canceling their scheduled performances in the state as a sign of protest, including Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas, and Pearl Jam. For bands who disagree with the HB2 law, but still want to perform in North Carolina like Mumford and Sons, Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, and Cyndi Lauper, they have chosen to donate all proceeds from their North Carolina stops to LGBTQ groups in the state. Now you can add Animal Collective to the list of bands donating proceeds to North Carolina LGBTQ groups.
In response to performing in North Carolina and HB2, Animal Collective released a statement saying, “We felt that canceling our show, like many others have done in protest of this law, would be a disappointment to our fans and decided to go on with the performance, that being said, we don’t condone or agree with any type of bigotry or discrimination,” going on to read, “In an effort to raise awareness and help those fighting for equality, we are making two of our favorite recent shows available for download in a ‘pay what you want’ model.” After their Sunday night show at Asheville’s The Orange Peel, Animal Collective released those two pay-what-you-want live albums on their Bandcamp page.
The two albums, Live at Fonda Theatre: March 9, 2016 and Live at the Ritz: April 13, 2016, are available now and all proceeds from these two albums will go towards Progress NC, a non-profit who, according to their Mission Statement, “promotes public policies which make NC a fairer, healthier, more equitable state by advocating solutions to critical community problems.”
(via Pitchfork)
