Cursive, Saul Williams, Planes Mistaken for Stars and Mike Park

Last week, 65 million votes were cast in one night on American Idol. That's more than half of the total votes in the 2000 presidential race--granted, that particular election didn't involve middle-schoolers using speed dial; otherwise Justin Timberlake would be rocking the Oval Office. But when two warbling teens can...

By Sarah Hepola

June 3, 2004

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Last week, 65 million votes were cast in one night on American Idol. That's more than half of the total votes in the 2000 presidential race--granted, that particular election didn't involve middle-schoolers using speed dial; otherwise Justin Timberlake would be rocking the Oval Office. But when two warbling teens can generate more than half the voter interest of, you know, the leader of the free world, well, something's out of whack. Luckily, the Plea for Peace Tour rolls through town Wednesday bringing politics and entertainment. Despite its left-leaning name, the tour is not about rhetoric or partisanship. It is a way to rally young voters, to usher the black-hoodied, tattooed teens of the world through that wonderful rite of passage we call the ballot booth. The tour has enlisted a handful of impassioned (and, OK, left-leaning) artists like Saul Williams, about the only slam poet we don't want to slam into a brick wall, and Cursive, the emo-with-a-cello band from Omaha whose last album was the haunted, howling The Ugly Organ, a series of sonically ambitious vignettes about sexual despair. It's time to sign up and rock out. The November election is one reality show you can't afford to miss.

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