Blackbird Café held a concert dedicated for Chico’s pride weekend on Saturday.
It was a night of music spanning all genres and featuring local and out-of-town artists, encapsulating an environment of inclusion for people of all kinds.
The evening began with the experimental Bay Area-based artist Tieraney Carter, better known as Wizard Apprentice. Carter put on an amazing show of original songs paired with interesting visuals and performance art.
Carter said that she sometimes speculates about if her audience will assume the gender of the person they are singing about when she performs in a queer space. However, she later explained that her love for music is really a way to express herself.
“Music is a technology for recording emotions and being able to share them with other people,” Carter said. “It’s one of the things that can do that in precise ways, and one of the things I love about it.”
Iver, a local band, was well received by the Chico crowd. Playing a set of ‘80s synth-meets-punk-meets-“Pretty-in-Pink,” they were a great example of the kind of talent that can be found right within the community.
After Iver’s set, lead singer Mackenzie Zevely-Howlett, drummer Sawyer Goodson and bassist John Simcox talked about what they have in mind when playing an LGBTQ event.
“It’s no different from any other show that we really play, realistically we just want people to be comfortable,” Goodson said.
“Playing pride for me is exciting because it’s a celebration of being queer, but I hope that every show I play. people who are queer feel comfortable being there,” Zevely-Howlett said.
The band explained that much of their love of music stems from the close-knit community found in Chico. They also expressed how they wished more people would recognize Chico for its music and the inclusive environment it has created for so many marginalized youths.
With many events similar to this one at Blackbird, and with a supportive community both native and nonnative to the area, it is clear that Chico will continue to serve as a safe place for people of all identities.
Danielle Kessler can be reached at [email protected] or @reserv0irpups on Twitter.
