Living Things protest waste by burning up good money

The border around that YouTube video is green. Like money. I received a press release today about the St. Louis band Living Things, which did something kinda outrageous at SXSW last week. The band burned money on stage. Several times. The stunts were done in protest “Wall Street’s dirty ways” according to the release. The band also had this to say: “Our mother is a bank manager at Bank of America. Our father is a small business owner. We believe in the American Dream. But the dream is broken. You and I have something in common, we want the good life. But there is a problem. Wall Street’s dollar is dirty. Let’s burn that dirty dollar. We are not economists. We don’t have a solution. But through symbolism we can raise awareness together.”

A publicist for Living Things told me that over the course of several shows at SXSW, a total of $200 went up in smoke but also donated that much to a homeless shelter. Maybe they should have burned Monopoly money and donated $400 to the homeless shelter. But I guess that wouldn’t have been as extreme.

Pick up a free Living Things download at ultragrrrl.blogspot.com.