Review: Fire Aid Brings Music's Hugest Stars Together

Pacific Coast Highway, the road that runs along the ocean and past Pacific Palisades, is still closed. Residents are just now beginning to be allowed back into Altadena. And after a weekend of rain, Los Angeles and Santa Monica are now dealing with beach closures due to toxic runoff.

It would be easy, then, to assume there would be a heavy spirit inside the Kia Forum, one of the two venues for the megastar fundraiser Fire Aid. Instead, a combination of star-studded collaborations, stories of survival, and a few well-placed surprises played to an audience that, though it may be hurting, is also still breathing – and was ready for a night to smile.

Green Day set the tone for the evening with the very first song, when the band welcomed Billie Eilish – billed for a performance a mile down the road at the Intuit Dome – on stage to sing alongside Billie Joe Armstrong on “Last Night on Earth.” Unannounced collaborations and crossovers abounded: Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals already have multiple percussionists, but they added Shelia E. for the night as well – and then, to the loudest reaction of the evening, brought out Dr. Dre for “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love.” Dawes was joined by both Stephen Stills (for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”) and Graham Nash (for “Teach Your Children”). John Fogerty fronted the Black Crowes for a special version of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” then Slash joined the Crowes for a cover of the Led Zepplin’s “Going to California.”

The biggest surprise of the night, however, came when Pat Smear, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl took the stage for an unbilled reunion of the surviving members of Nirvana. With no in-house announcement or introduction, the trio and St. Vincent ripped through “Breed” before the crowd in the nosebleeds caught on to what was happening. Kim Gordon took St. Vincent’s place for “School,” then Joan Jett fronted the group on “Territorial Pissings”; that trio of artists also performed with Nirvana at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2014. But the most emotional moment came at the set’s conclusion, when Violet Grohl took lead vocals on “All Apologies,” to a roar from the audience.

Along with these one-off collaborations, artists also took the chance to add covers of a few California favorites to their repertoires. John Mayer’s “Free Fallin’” was one of the evening’s loudest singalongs, while P!nk covered the Led Zeppelin version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” a song written by folk singer Anne Bredon while she was a student at UC-Berkeley, recorded by Joan Baez.

P!nk setlist

The dual venue configuration, along with allowing for twice the ticket buyers, made the four-plus hour run time of the Forum’s festivities fly by. That was true even when the Intuit Dome roared to life with a set from Rod Stewart; Forum attendees sang along with “Maggie May” as if the legend was present, rather than being beamed from the Dome to screens at the Forum. (The same was very true for Gracie Abrams; the Gen Alpha attendees at the Forum may have been feeling a touch ignored, based on the fervor with which they shout-sang “I Love You, I’m Sorry.”) And for a show with two venues and more than a score of set changes to come off with minimal – if any – technical glitches is a minor miracle.

In the end, the important part of the live experience of Fire Aid may have had as much to do with the people in the room as it did with the uniformly strong performances. Abrams may have covered the Counting Crows’ classic “A Long December,” but it’s been the longest January in Los Angeles. People on the street look exhausted, and the town’s third spaces – bars, clubs, restaurants – have felt empty. Non-profits that previously had to work hard to attract volunteers now have waiting lists. A group of women in the nosebleed seats, upon hearing Stevie Nicks sing the opening notes of “Landslide” (dedicated, as so many songs were this evening, to the brave first responders and firefighters who have been ceaseless in their efforts), simply collapsed into a half hug/half pile and wept. For a night, they had space to do so.

Leave it to Joni Mitchell, one of the evening’s most revered artists and a songwriter forever tied to Los Angeles, to sum it up on “Both Sides, Now” in a way that drew mid-song applause: “Well, something’s lost, but something’s gained in living every day.” Los Angeles continues to count its losses, but nights like these are a reminder that there’s still more to gain – and, hopefully, regain.

See all the setlists from FireAid here.

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Last updated: 11 Feb 2025, 05:28 UTC

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