{"id":123701,"date":"2026-01-07T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/123701\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:28:12","slug":"this-is-for-the-other-people-dawes-hosts-eaton-fire-benefit-with-star-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/123701\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This is for the other people’: Dawes hosts Eaton fire benefit with star lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exactly one year after the devastating Eaton fire broke out, the Los Angeles folk-rock band Dawes will present an all-star benefit concert<\/a> on Wednesday night for victims of the blaze that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 structures in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.<\/p>\n

Among those affected by the fire: the two brothers who\u2019ve led Dawes for more than a decade and a half.<\/p>\n

Drummer Griffin Goldsmith\u2019s Altadena home was destroyed last January, while singer-guitarist Taylor Goldsmith lost his nearby recording studio and its decades\u2019 worth of musical gear; the siblings\u2019 parents\u2019 house in Altadena burned down, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember talking to my therapist early on, and he was like, \u2018Well, if you ever wondered what you and your family would be like under the most extreme circumstances \u2014 now you know,\u2019\u201d Taylor, 40, recalled with a laugh the other day.<\/p>\n

Yet Wednesday\u2019s show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium \u201cis not some pity party,\u201d Griffin, 35, said. \u201cThis is for the other people. And the reason it feels good to be doing it is because a lot of people are in much more need than we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

With proceeds earmarked for the Altadena Builds Back Foundation, A Concert for Altadena will feature Dawes along with acts including Stephen Stills<\/a>, Lord Huron<\/a>, Aloe Blacc, Rufus Wainwright<\/a>, Lucius, Jenny Lewis<\/a> and Brandon Flowers of the Killers. Taylor\u2019s wife, the singer and actor Mandy Moore, is set to perform, while John C. Reilly<\/a> will serve as host.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the bill is Brad Paisley, the country star (and part-time Angeleno) who joined the Goldsmiths to open last year\u2019s Grammy Awards ceremony<\/a> with a boisterous rendition of Randy Newman\u2019s \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d that also featured Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard and John Legend.<\/p>\n

The brothers hope to raise at least $500,000 from the show, which they organized with guitarist Eric Krasno, who will also perform, and Warped Tour<\/a> founder Kevin Lyman, a fellow Altadena resident whose home was damaged by smoke in the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s putting the spotlight on something that\u2019s kind of just begun in certain ways,\u201d Griffin said of the slow-moving recovery process. \u201cThe world moves on \u2014 that\u2019s just how things go. But these problems don\u2019t fix themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raised in Malibu, the Goldsmiths formed Dawes around 2009 and play strummy, country-inflected rock with echoes of Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Warren Zevon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Brad <\/p>\n

Brad Paisley performs onstage during iHeartCountry Live in Burbank on Nov. 11, 2016. <\/p>\n

(Kevin Winter)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, they\u2019re like the closest thing we have to that \u2018once upon a time in Los Angeles\u2019 type of sound,\u201d said Paisley, who met Taylor through his acquaintance with Moore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached out to Mandy at some point after they got married and said, \u2018Your husband is like my favorite songwriter going,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe told him that, and then he reached out and we became friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Paisley joined Dawes at Taylor\u2019s dimly lighted studio to cut a live version of \u201cHouse Parties,\u201d from the band\u2019s latest album, \u201cOh Brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCouple of months later, the place was gone,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how the fire might have changed him, Taylor said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to feel like it\u2019s changed me at all \u2014 I don\u2019t want to give it that kind of power.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019m not comfortable in the victim role, and I\u2019m not saying that as some sort of humble-brag.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come up with their eyes wide and want to give me a hug, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Don\u2019t be silly \u2014 I\u2019m fine.\u2019 That\u2019s my reflex. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s good or bad, but I resist it when someone says, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m sure things are different now.\u2019 I don\u2019t want that to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand, it can be a defining aspect of our band and our lives,\u201d Griffin said of the fire and its destruction. \u201cOn the other hand, I think what can be defining is the way we move forward and how we can continue to lift up this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor recently visited a construction site where Altadena Builds Back and Habitat for Humanity are rebuilding a house that burned down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got me so excited that I was like, \u2018Can I come back and be a volunteer?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re already on their third or fourth home, and they\u2019re doing them fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Griffin: \u201cThat\u2019s an amazing success story, and so how do you make that scalable? It\u2019s a pretty insurmountable-seeming problem when you look at the macro of it. But focusing on the micro can be really important to feel like, OK, this is getting done.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do the brothers make of local officials\u2019 handling of relief efforts?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to get too cynical, but I couldn\u2019t really say that I feel like the city or county or state government have helped,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bureaucracy makes itself clear really quickly,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Looking back on the fire itself, Taylor said, \u201cIt\u2019s so easy now to be like, \u2018How dare there be a shortage of firefighters on the Eastside when that fire was on its way toward us?\u2019 But as a musician I\u2019m in no position to say that I know what could have been done \u2014 that I know what they should be taking responsibility for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like the politicians don\u2019t know either,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cBut the firefighters were obviously nothing but amazing. No one\u2019s blaming them. They were just doing what they could with the resources they had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have so much information, and you can approach that lack of information in good faith or bad faith,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI choose to believe that intentions are good. Maybe someone else would hear me say that and shake their head and insist that I\u2019m not being skeptical enough. And maybe they\u2019d be right. But that\u2019s how we\u2019re deciding to approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paisley, whose former home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the Palisades fire, said he\u2019s never seen anyone process loss as the Goldsmiths have.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t lose anything except the house we used to love,\u201d the country singer said of the place he and his wife, actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley, sold in 2013. \u201cAnd I\u2019m madder than they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Taylor <\/p>\n

Taylor Goldsmith, left, and Griffin Goldsmith at the 67th Grammy Awards in February 2025.<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Today, Griffin and his wife, Kit Goldsmith, are living in Eagle Rock with their 11-month-old son, who was born a month ahead of schedule just two weeks after the Eaton fire ravaged Altadena.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, that was insanity \u2014 like, I can\u2019t believe this is happening right now,\u201d he said of the baby\u2019s early arrival, which he assumes was the result of stress. \u201cBut once he was here, it definitely gave us a new, brighter perspective that this is what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do he and his family plan to return to Altadena?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have our lot, but there\u2019s just so many pieces that need to fall into place before we have a clear picture of what the future is for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Taylor, Moore and their three young children are back in their Altadena home after having left for about nine months to deal with smoke damage. And Taylor said he\u2019s in the plans and permitting stage of rebuilding his studio.<\/p>\n

Asked how he expects the experiences of the past year to shape Dawes\u2019 next album, the singer said he wasn\u2019t sure yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe times I\u2019ve tried to sit down \u2014 \u2018What\u2019s the song here?\u2019 \u2014 it feels opportunistic,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least right now. Maybe someday that won\u2019t be the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I will say that it\u2019s contributing to the mood,\u201d he added. \u201cOur last record, there\u2019s a certain levity \u2014 a certain number of songs that are even meant to be a little silly.\u201d He laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s not falling out of me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exactly one year after the devastating Eaton fire broke out, the Los Angeles folk-rock band Dawes will present…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46748,64705,11418,64707,64704,64706,3802,64708,64703,9172,48,52,51,47,50,49,39002,7091,36465,20295,4609],"class_list":{"0":"post-123701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-altadena-home","9":"tag-brad-paisley","10":"tag-brother","11":"tag-certain-way","12":"tag-dawes","13":"tag-eaton-fire-benefit","14":"tag-fire","15":"tag-goldsmiths","16":"tag-griffin","17":"tag-house","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-other-people","25":"tag-singer","26":"tag-taylor","27":"tag-wednesday-night","28":"tag-wife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}