FRANTI PLAYS SAN QUENTIN

From sprearheadvibration.com

Michael Franti has announced that he will play for the inmates of San Quentin Prison on May 19th. This will be the first show since Metallica filmed their video for St. Anger inside the prison walls in 2002. The show will be live in front of 2,000 inmates, however Franti is petitioning to have the concert broadcast to death row inmates through closed circuit television.

Franti is famous not only as the creator and driving force behind Spearhead, but also as a political activist. Recently he has visited patients at Washington’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center and performed for the injured soldiers. “I was very moved by the courage of the young men I met who were dealing with very intense injuries from shattered bones to limb amputations and how most of them seem to have a positive attitude about their recovery and their plans for the future,” Franti says of his visit to WRAMC.

“One of the patients, Pete, played my guitar even though he still had shrapnel in his finger tips and in physical pain,” Franti explains. “He had also been burned by a roadside bomb that destroyed the Humvee he was in and didn’t have full hand strength yet, but still he had this desire to practice and play guitar. Music has been a healer in my life and I thought there are probably patients like Pete who will be passing through the hospital who will have plenty of time to play the guitar or at least try it, so I went out and bought a guitar for the ward. I came away from this experience feeling a deeper commitment toward the work of Veteran’s issues and the healing power of music.”

In keeping with that belief, that evening – following an uplifting performance with Spearhead at the city’s 9:30 Club as part of his ongoing Yell Fire! tour – Franti participated in a fundraiser for Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). In addition to a screening of his acclaimed anti-war documentary, I Know I’m Not Alone: A Musician’s Search For The Human Cost Of War at Busboys & Poets, Franti also played an intimate late night acoustic set.