BY GLENN GAMBOA
glenn.gamboa@newsday.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The American leg of Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis, like the other concerts on all seven continents, proved to be as complex as the issue it is trying to solve.
As the anointed launch of a social movement, Live Earth U.S.A. pushed and pulled a wide range of ideas - some political, some social, some as big as government policy change, some as small as changing a lightbulb - seemingly anxious to see what method may prove most effective. As a superstar concert, it was a bit more straightforward - with standout sets from Alicia Keys, Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson showing why they are A-list performers with high-energy, high-impact sets.
And for organizers, the solution will come with raised awareness. "Today, more than 2 billion of us have come together in more than 130 countries on all seven continents," said former Vice President Al Gore, the event's organizer. "Times like these demand action," he added, after announcing the 7-Point Pledge that he hoped millions would sign while watching the concert.
However, Etheridge aside, it was nonmusicians at this concert who made the most passionate pleas about demanding action for the environment. "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors."
Primatologist Jane Goodall offered a greeting in chimpanzee language, before saying, "Up in the North the ice is melting, what will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?"
Perhaps it would take the passion of singers like Keys, whose "If I Ain't Got You" was a thrilling highlight, or Clarkson, who turned her new single "Sober" into a poignant ballad. Or maybe it would take the heat from a trio of young rock groups - Fall Out Boy, AFI and Rockville Centre's Taking Back Sunday - who all put on strong sets and showed the rising influence coming from the indie-rock scene.
The reunited Smashing Pumpkins offered plenty of rage in their set, the classic "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and the new single "Tarantula." And Pink Floyd's Roger Waters offered stately classic rock, as well as an inflatable pig, hailed by a children's choir during "Another Brick in the Wall." The reunited Police capped the evening with topical tracks like "Driven to Tears" and the all-star jam "Message in a Bottle."
Organizers said Live Earth was the largest musical event ever held, as well as the biggest green event of any kind. MSN, which was hosting the concert on its Web site, said that by 3 p.m., it had played more than 10 million video streams and had the most simultaneous viewers of any online concert ever.
For John Mayer, the raised awareness that Live Earth U.S.A. brought to the issue of climate change made the event a success. "I think a lot of people at Giants Stadium today want to listen," he said. "Awareness works likes a vitamin. You go to the bathroom and 99 percent of it is gone but you hope that you retained 1 percent."