I Awno
Photo credit: Sachyn Mital

Heems & his new band I Awno rise against Islamophobia at BK Bazaar (pics)

On a late Thursday night (8/24) at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, Heems headlined a benefit show at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar featuring some unannounced guests, his Thums Up bandmates Rafiq Bhatia and Kassa Overall, and Rafiq’s Son Lux bandmate Ian Chang. Heems dubbed the new four-piece band I Awno, and played a set that drifted between rap (he did a bit of Swet Shop Boys’ “Terminal 5”), spoken word and beat poetry.

The show was a benefit for Unity Productions Foundation (UPF), an organization working to stave off Islamaphobia, and followed the release of the Philia: Artists Rise Against Islamophobia compilation, which also benefits UPF. Heems is on that comp, as are Drop Electric and Small Leaks Sink Ships, who both also played the Brooklyn Bazaar show. (Slow Machete, who are not on the comp, played the Brooklyn show as well.) We also caught Drop Electrics, who had a shoegazey sound with touches of Sigur Rós and Radiohead (especially as they covered “Weird Fishes”). Pictures are in the gallery above.

Heems and Riz MC will play a Swet Shop Boys set at NYC’s The Meadows music festival in September. Speaking of, Riz recently performed “Sour Times” on Fallon in wake of the events in Charlottesville. You can watch that moving performance below.