Precisely one 12 months after the devastating Eaton hearth broke out, the Los Angeles folk-rock band Dawes will current an all-star profit live performance on Wednesday night time for victims of the blaze that killed 19 folks and destroyed greater than 9,000 buildings within the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Amongst these affected by the fireplace: the 2 brothers who’ve led Dawes for greater than a decade and a half.
Drummer Griffin Goldsmith’s Altadena house was destroyed final January, whereas singer-guitarist Taylor Goldsmith misplaced his close by recording studio and its a long time’ price of musical gear; the siblings’ dad and mom’ home in Altadena burned down, as properly.
“I bear in mind speaking to my therapist early on, and he was like, ‘Effectively, in the event you ever questioned what you and your loved ones could be like below probably the most excessive circumstances — now ,’” Taylor, 40, recalled with fun the opposite day.
But Wednesday’s present on the Pasadena Civic Auditorium “shouldn’t be some pity celebration,” Griffin, 35, mentioned. “That is for the opposite folks. And the rationale it feels good to be doing it’s as a result of lots of people are in way more want than we’re.”
With proceeds earmarked for the Altadena Builds Again Basis, A Live performance for Altadena will function Dawes together with acts together with Stephen Stills, Lord Huron, Aloe Blacc, Rufus Wainwright, Lucius, Jenny Lewis and Brandon Flowers of the Killers. Taylor’s spouse, the singer and actor Mandy Moore, is ready to carry out, whereas John C. Reilly will function host.
Rounding out the invoice is Brad Paisley, the nation star (and part-time Angeleno) who joined the Goldsmiths to open final 12 months’s Grammy Awards ceremony with a boisterous rendition of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” that additionally featured Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard and John Legend.
The brothers hope to boost at the least $500,000 from the present, which they organized with guitarist Eric Krasno, who can even carry out, and Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, a fellow Altadena resident whose house was broken by smoke within the hearth.
“It’s placing the highlight on one thing that’s type of simply begun in sure methods,” Griffin mentioned of the slow-moving restoration course of. “The world strikes on — that’s simply how issues go. However these issues don’t repair themselves.”
Raised in Malibu, the Goldsmiths shaped Dawes round 2009 and play strummy, country-inflected rock with echoes of Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Warren Zevon.
Brad Paisley performs onstage throughout iHeartCountry Stay in Burbank on Nov. 11, 2016.
(Kevin Winter)
“To me, they’re just like the closest factor now we have to that ‘as soon as upon a time in Los Angeles’ sort of sound,” mentioned Paisley, who met Taylor by means of his acquaintance with Moore.
“I reached out to Mandy sooner or later after they acquired married and mentioned, ‘Your husband is like my favourite songwriter going,’” he recalled. “She informed him that, after which he reached out and we turned mates.”
In 2024, Paisley joined Dawes at Taylor’s dimly lighted studio to chop a dwell model of “Home Events,” from the band’s newest album, “Oh Brother.”
“Couple of months later, the place was gone,” he mentioned. “It’s arduous to imagine.”
Requested how the fireplace might need modified him, Taylor mentioned, “I don’t wish to really feel prefer it’s modified me in any respect — I don’t wish to give it that type of energy.” He added, “I’m not snug within the sufferer function, and I’m not saying that as some kind of humble-brag.
“Folks give you their eyes vast and wish to give me a hug, and I’m like, ‘Don’t be foolish — I’m wonderful.’ That’s my reflex. I don’t know if that’s good or dangerous, however I resist it when somebody says, ‘Oh, I’m positive issues are completely different now.’ I don’t need that to be the case.”
“On one hand, it may be a defining facet of our band and our lives,” Griffin mentioned of the fireplace and its destruction. “Then again, I believe what could be defining is the best way we transfer ahead and the way we are able to proceed to elevate up this neighborhood.”
Taylor lately visited a development web site the place Altadena Builds Again and Habitat for Humanity are rebuilding a home that burned down.
“They acquired me so excited that I used to be like, ‘Can I come again and be a volunteer?’” he mentioned. “They’re already on their third or fourth house, they usually’re doing them quick.”
Added Griffin: “That’s an incredible success story, and so how do you make that scalable? It’s a fairly insurmountable-seeming downside if you take a look at the macro of it. However specializing in the micro could be actually necessary to really feel like, OK, that is getting executed.”
What do the brothers make of native officers’ dealing with of reduction efforts?
“I don’t wish to get too cynical, however I couldn’t actually say that I really feel like the town or county or state authorities have helped,” Griffin mentioned.
“The forms makes itself clear actually shortly,” Taylor mentioned.
Wanting again on the fireplace itself, Taylor mentioned, “It’s really easy now to be like, ‘How dare there be a scarcity of firefighters on the Eastside when that fireside was on its approach towards us?’ However as a musician I’m in no place to say that I do know what might have been executed — that I do know what they need to be taking duty for.”
“It looks as if the politicians don’t know both,” Griffin mentioned. “However the firefighters had been clearly nothing however wonderful. Nobody’s blaming them. They had been simply doing what they might with the assets that they had.”
“We solely have a lot info, and you may method that lack of understanding in good religion or dangerous religion,” Taylor mentioned. “I select to imagine that intentions are good. Perhaps another person would hear me say that and shake their head and demand that I’m not being skeptical sufficient. And perhaps they’d be proper. However that’s how we’re deciding to method it.”
Paisley, whose former house in Pacific Palisades was destroyed within the Palisades hearth, mentioned he’s by no means seen anybody course of loss because the Goldsmiths have.
“I didn’t lose something besides the home we used to like,” the nation singer mentioned of the place he and his spouse, actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley, bought in 2013. “And I’m madder than they’re.”
Taylor Goldsmith, left, and Griffin Goldsmith on the 67th Grammy Awards in February 2025.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
At this time, Griffin and his spouse, Package Goldsmith, live in Eagle Rock with their 11-month-old son, who was born a month forward of schedule simply two weeks after the Eaton hearth ravaged Altadena.
“In some methods, that was madness — like, I can’t imagine that is taking place proper now,” he mentioned of the infant’s early arrival, which he assumes was the results of stress. “However as soon as he was right here, it positively gave us a brand new, brighter perspective that that is what issues most.”
Do he and his household plan to return to Altadena?
“We nonetheless have our lot, however there’s simply so many items that must fall into place earlier than now we have a transparent image of what the longer term is for us,” he mentioned.
Taylor, Moore and their three younger youngsters are again of their Altadena house after having left for about 9 months to take care of smoke injury. And Taylor mentioned he’s within the plans and allowing stage of rebuilding his studio.
Requested how he expects the experiences of the previous 12 months to form Dawes’ subsequent album, the singer mentioned he wasn’t positive but.
“The instances I’ve tried to sit down down — ‘What’s the music right here?’ — it feels opportunistic,” he mentioned. “At the very least proper now. Perhaps sometime that gained’t be the case.
“However I’ll say that it’s contributing to the temper,” he added. “Our final report, there’s a sure levity — a sure variety of songs which might be even meant to be slightly foolish.” He laughed. “That’s not falling out of me proper now.”
