Grocery Benefit Concert
12/18/03
Angela Pham
It was Thursday night at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Tom Morello and Serj Tankian’s Axis of
Justice gathered musicians from AUDIOSLAVE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, SLIPKNOT and
PHANTOM PLANET. The show was for grocery workers. When we got there, all these grocery
workers were outside with their posters. There were news cameras everywhere. When we got
inside it was crowded. There was barely room to breathe. We found a good spot in front of the
stage, we must have upset some people because we smelt something really gross. What a good
tactic - farting to get a good spacey spot in the crowd. The show started off with some words from
grocery workers (one from YL- YEAUH, you butter recognize). Janeane Garafolo, an actress
comedic person, was the host and introduced the guests. The ALL STAR JAM featured Audioslave’
s Tom Morello and Brad Wilk, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, RHCP bassist Flea, Phantom
Planet’s Alex Greenwald and Sam Farrar, Boots Riley of The Coop, and Lester Chambers of The
Chambers Brothers, performing the Curtis Mayfield classic 'People Get Ready'. Serj wasn’t really
doing anything, but swaying back and forth. After the first few songs, Shaudee and I got bored so
we left the Roxy and walked down the street when these punks, these rascals, started protesting
the Roxy and playing their loud raunchy music. They told us their show was cancelled because of
the grocery benefit show. Like I care. We went back and Rosemary was still watching the show.
We kept trying ways to get past this one guard but it was so hard because he was right in the
doorway. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, Shaudee’s mom came too. No, its not because we needed a
chaperone, it was because she was meeting up with a friend. Yes, that’s it. When we were watching
from the bar, I saw this familiar face through the crowd. It was Alex and that other guy… the uglier
one, from Phantom Planet (the only reason why shaudee and I wanted to go). Then I saw Shaudee’
s mom leading them to us. I realized that she had found them and made them meet us. How
embarrassing. On top of that she said “Shaudee has posters of you ALL OVER her wall!”. I was
like “ haha … I’m so sorry” but he was nice about it. After that incident, we watched the rest of the
show which included Tom Morello as "The Nightwatchman" and Serj reading/singing from his
poem book "Cool Gardens" who also came out and played this weird organ intrument where you
blow through a tube and play a mini keyboard. It looked really funny. Corey Taylor's show was also
interesting, he sang his song Bother as well as a cover of Sanitarium by Metallica. The show ended
with all the performers covering "Play that funky music" by Wild Cherry. It was hilarious. The show
finally ended and we waited awhile for the guys to come out and we mingled. Although we didn’t
get to meet Serj (there’s a curse I tell you), we met Tom Morello which was a huge achievement for
RoseMary, as well as Brad Wilk and Corey Taylor.
Serj from SOAD on the left in the white sweater watching the
show, and Tom Morello from RATM/Audioslave on the right
playing guitar
Tom Morello playing guitar on the left and Flea from RHCP
playing trumpet in the middle, and Corey Taylor on the far right
The VERY awesome Nightwatchman, aka Tom Morello, with
RoseMary
There would be a photo with Brad
Wilk from RATM/Audioslave, but
the photo didn't turn out...
very angry about that
Sheep Mafia Thanks for this Event
Tom Morello
Brad Wilk
Janeane Garafolo
Serj Tankian
Sam Farrar
Alex Greenwald
Flea
Corey Taylor
Other artists at the event
Concert crew
The grocery strikers
The Roxy
Shaudees mum
Those who made this possible
