Aviv Geffen Concert: Re-cap & See Him this Sunday!

You should attend his Sunday benefit concert in San Mateo. All the money is going to help our brothers and sisters in Israel’s north. The ISO list tipped me to the following:

Sorry, but Aviv Geffin cancelled the interview for
tomorrow (Friday), but we will still give away 2 pairs
of tix between 9 AM & noon to his Sun night show in
San Mateo. See below. We’ll also be playing Israeli
music for the first half of the show (9-10:30 AM)

The singer/songwriter Hyim will be coming to KZSU
tomorrow after 10:30 AM, with his guitar & we’ll talk
about the Jewish Street Fair happening on Sun in Palo
Alto.

> Tune in on FRIDAY Sep 15th to hear a live interview
> with Aviv Geffin & to win FREE tickets to his Sept
> 17
> show.
>
> On KZSU, Stanford Radio 90.1 FM 9 AM to NOON
> The Jewish Alternative with Sarah Bellum
>
> Listen on the web: WWW.kzsu.stanford.edu or
> www.KZSU.org
>
> Request line: 650 723- 9010
>
> With special guests: Hyim, David Meir-Levi, Doron
> Shapira, Raya Zion

Last night I went up to the Aviv Geffen benefit concert with lilShary. It had been about six years since last I heard Aviv Geffen perform live. In my first year at Cal, my ‘Guy’ and I went to Wheeler Hall to hear him perform. Even though I don’t speak Hebrew, I had received as a gift from my Israeli cousin two CD’s of Aviv’s music. I knew the cultural significance of his song-writing and music, and I had the English lyrics for a few of them. And even though I don’t speak Hebrew, it is still my ‘mama loshen‘ (Yiddish for ‘mother-tongue’), to mix metaphors, since it is the language of my parents and the first language I learned to speak. So his songs had a certain resonance for me. He’s the first Israeli artist that I became familiar with that Israelis in my generation would listen to. He helped me start to establish cultural ties to Israel.

To make a long story short, I was able to get access to the concert, the VIP reception after, and the after-party. Pictures follow. Sorry, no video of his performance, as he explicitly asked for no recordings. Read on!

[UPDATE: Sun Sep 17 22:15:37 2006] Added captions to the pictures!

[UPDATE: Tue Sep 19 15:14:05 2006] Added my dialogue with Aviv, and check out this article about him in the J Weekly! And Jewschool covered his tour, too!

The crowd was predominantly Israeli, and young. Seems like there were lotsa female groupies.

A dark picture of Aviv during his performance. They expressly told me that they wouldn’t allow pictures, but I took one anyways. But, but, but… other’s started it! 🙂 No burly Mossad men beat me up, so I took that as a sign of their acceptance. The concert was great, because it was really “strippd down”, just Aviv and his guitar or Yamaha keyboard, with a keyboardist accompanying him on some sets.

A shot of the JCC lobby after the concert ended. Like I said, a lot of people there! I hadn’t been in the JCC since high school, so it was cool to see the remodeled version. Very pretty in the foyer/lobby!

Here’s a shot of Aviv shortly after he entered the exclusive after-concert reception area.

Look at that spread! LilShary and I partook gladly, as we were famished.

LilShary and Abba & Ima LilShary.

LilShary with Aviv. She wants me to photo-shop the smile of Aviv with me onto ‘her’ Aviv. I’ll see what I can do! 🙂

So after taking the pictures, I got up my nerve to ask him a question or two ( had brain-stormed a list of ten-some-odd questions). So, I asked if it would be okay.

“Now?”, he asked, with the tone and expression of a young boy being told to go clean his room. 🙂

“Just one!”, I pleaded, and he acquiesced.

“You are here on a benefit tour for Israel’s north; to raise funds and awareness. I’m a writer for a Bay Area Jewish blog that college-age and young adult Jews read. If you could get one idea or message out to them, what would that be?”

He smiles a toothy grin and says, “Blackfield!” 😀

I banter back to him, “Schwartzfeld?” (Yiddish for black-field)

He laughs and says, “Yeah. Hey, that’s pretty good!”

Not what I was expecting, but great nonetheless! I was hoping it might be something about peace, American Jews and Israelis being brothers and sisters, etc. Eh, what can you do?

The after-party at Solstice ( just a few blocks away ), was tight; with old & new friends packing the back room.

Dina, a friend of mine since high school, and Joslyn. Both of the Federation.

I forget the names of the others, but the tall stud is Ben, an old friend of mine from Bezerkeley. He’s been volunteering for the Israel Center to help put together this event. Why? Because he’s a mentsch, that’s why. Oh, and there seemed to be a heavy Otzma delegation representin’. Makes sense, because Otzma sends its volunteers to the corresponding “sister” regions in Israel, and the Bay Area is partnered up with Kiryat Shemona and the north in general (where the money is going to).