So not too long ago, if you looked up “Burma” on Youtube or Google, I’m pretty sure that there were be more links about Mission of Burma than about the country. The band got their name off of the consulate building in New York over two decades ago, having no idea what this meant for them.

On January 20th, at the Great Scott in Massachusetts they put on quite the show for us, with the lead singer Roger Miller sporting a t-shirt with the fighting peacock on it, and thoroughly enjoying using a sign that said “stop the SPDC”, and I must say, it was a pretty great show.

For Videos of the Show, Click Here

I’ve put on several benefit concerts for Burma in my day, for mostly two very different reasons. One, is it’s a good incentive to get people to gather together with the small hope that it might increase their knowledge from wondering what in the world is a Burma to being able to at least say that it’s in a rotten political state. And I never have an delusions that this one concert in my house is going to save the country.

Also, I do have this firm belief in the power of music in social revolution. One of my favorite movies, Amandla:Revolution in Four Part Harmony, is about the music in the anti-apartheid movement (rent it, it’s amazing). Political speeches can only go so far, but an amazing song and a fist in the air, that’ll really get a revolution stirring. The junta in Burma is firmly aware of this as well, the power of song, poetry, etc in stirring people up and that is why so many artists, actors, musicians, and writers have been imprisoned.

In my job, there are always moments where it hits me why I do what I do. The concert was a lot of fun- Boston, Bands, and Burma – what more do you need really for a good time? But we had a Burmese woman go up and give a little speech, and she asked to not give her name and have her face blotted out in the videos of it. Even here in the US the fear of the junta follows. And this- this is why we fight.

-Thelma Young
Campaigns Coordinator

See an article about the event on Pitchfork