Musicians to get political in the capital

Two very different musical events are planned for the nation’s capital next month.

On Sept. 11, country singer Clint Black will headline the America Supports You concert in support of the military and the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The concert on the Washington Mall will follow a Freedom Walk, sponsored by the Department of Defense, which will begin at the Pentagon and conclude by the Mall’s Reflecting Pool.

The walk and concert will remind participants “of the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation that has so successfully defended our freedoms,” Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a news briefing this week.

Meanwhile, Operation Ceasefire, a newly formed coalition of musicians who oppose the war in Iraq, plans a free 10-hour music festival on the Washington Monument grounds that will be the centerpiece of a cluster of antiwar activities spanning three days, beginning Sept. 24.

The concert, billed as a “cultural resistance” by event organizers, will feature acts including the Washington electronica duo Thievery Corporation, who are also producing the festival; singer-songwriter Steve Earle; socialist rappers the Coup; and punk rock/indie artists Le Tigre performing to urge lawmakers to bring the troops home.

The Saturday events will kick off with a morning rally in front of the Washington Monument, followed by a march through downtown and an antiwar fair on the grounds of the monument, culminating with the concert. On Sunday there will be an interfaith service and grass-roots training. Monday’s activities will feature grass-roots lobbying of 100 legislators as well as a “mass nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience” in front of the White House, event organizers said.

“I don’t subscribe to the ‘love it or leave it’ doctrine,” said Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton. “I’m American, and I love this country too. I just feel a moral imperative as a human being who happens to be a musician” to do something about the war.