By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The taco truck invasion came to Bowling Green last night.
Earlier this week a supporter of Donald Trump’s campaign warned that of Hillary Clinton was elected there would be an influx trucks. Since then social media has been full of mocking references to the remark. So Next Gen Climate, a group mobilizing young voters to vote for politicians in favor of taking action to combat global warming, brought a taco truck to downtown Bowling Green and was handing out free tacos and other food items.
They also offered to register voters. Among the most enthusiastic was Kirsty Sayer, a native of South Africa, who recently became a U.S. citizen. She happily posed with her voter registration form and a sign that declared “Stop Trump, Vote Climate.”
The taco truck was there in conjunction with a Concert for the Climate held across the street at Grounds for Thought. The concert was billed as a mix of activism and music. As promised the music took the upper hand.
Singer-songwriter Justin Payne, encouraged people to register to vote during his set. “That’s as much as you’ll hear me say about politics in public,” he told the audience.
Dustin Galish, who is a field organizer for Next Gen and the leader of the band Tree No Leaves, urged those in attendance to vote for candidates who support environmental causes. They need “to make sure the environment didn’t suffer because you didn’t vote.”
And with that he turned over the spotlight on the first act Tim Concannon, who evoked an earlier generation of activists with a rendition of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer.”
He also made the only explicit pitch for a candidate, singing a song in support of Kelly Wicks, the owner of the coffee shop and a Democratic candidate for the State House.
Certainly Mechanical Cat, a musical project of John Zibbel, wove environmental messages in his intergalactic tales about a visitor from the planet Trifenderor. (Zibbel is a BG Independent business partner.)
Otherwise the mostly college age crowd of about 100 heard an evening of mostly original music.
Payne’s original pieces drew heavily on the blues and folk tradition, evoking working folks up against the industrial machine. He said that earlier this year while on tour, the rash of violent incidents discouraged him so much he almost stepped away from music. But he didn’t.
Balance Bird from Toledo delivered a set of animated alternative rock, full of catchy hooks.
Tree No Leaves closed with a set of songs built on driving drums and fluid bass churning under layers of guitar, keyboard and vocals.
The show ended with songs about making love and making babies, but the subtext of the evening was still making a difference by voting.
Dustin Galish with Tree No Leaves
