Summer Concert Series, Featuring Sunny War

Sunny War is a dynamic blues guitarist and soulful, honest, vocalist and songwriter who performs with the thoughtful intensity of hot coals. She is an activist and community organizer, and she is joining us with her fabulous bassist Ayron Davis, for this fourth in the concert series evening featuring fantastic music, and delicious food, wine and beer.

More about Sunny War:

“…her right thumb plunks the bass part while her forefinger upstrokes notes and chords, leaving the other three fingers unused. A banjo technique, it’s also used by acoustic blues guitarists. Her fingers are long and strong – Robert Johnson hands – in jarring contrast to the waif they’re attached to. The walking bass line sounds like a hammer striking piano keys in perfect meter, while the fills are dynamic flurries – like cluster bombs. I haven’t heard a young guitarist this dexterous and ass-kicking in eons.” – Michael Simmons, L.A Weekly

Speaking with Sunny War, her mind roves endlessly, jumping between topics, spilling out rapid fire thoughts like her wildly inventive guitar playing. The pandemic has driven many away from their creative centers, but Sunny’s been uncommonly busy. She founded a Los Angeles chapter of the nonprofit Food Not Bombs and put together a network of volunteers to distribute vegan food to the homeless. She marched for BLM in protest against police brutality and found time to cut a new album at her favorite spot, Hen House Studios in Venice Beach. Sunny’s last album brought her universal praise and a powerful Tiny Desk performance at NPR. You’d think that the next album would bring a whole suite of expectations, but Sunny shrugged these off easily. She’s motivated less by what others expect and more by her own inner muse, and she’s surrounded herself with an artistic group of friends who are constantly writing, recording, and playing music.

Sunny may have turned to music as a source of solace during one of the hardest years in recent times, but she’s committed to change moving forward. Her work with Food Not Bombs remains a highlight, and has been pushing her to more direct action. For someone who grew up going to protests, encouraged to get out on the streets as part of the punk scene’s ethos at the time, it’s clear that Sunny’s finding relief in taking action, especially at time when so many peoples’ political motivations are starting to feel suspect. “I’m excited to see if people are going to do half the stuff they talked about doing when they were trying to get votes,” she says. “BLM and everything else, I feel like that was a trend. It was convenient for everyone to start caring when we had the pandemic because nobody’s really working, but when it was just Black people years ago, none of those protests meant as much. Now that everyone jumped in, it’s a conversation that can be had, but this has been going on for years.” Starting up Food Not Bombs was Sunny’s way to give back, especially since she’d used Food Not Bombs for food when she herself was living on the streets. “I remembered that was kind of the only time I really ate at one point,” she says. “I can’t do much, but Food Not Bombs helps us come together as a community and realize that we are a community. Now I see people every week and we know each other. It’s also about not looking away when you see somebody in this situation.”

More about the series:

The concert consists of two fourty-five minute sets, between 6-8pm, with a suggested donation amount of $10-15/person.

We will have our famous stone fired, thin crust pizza for sale, by the slice and by the pie, as well as beer, wine, soft drinks, and desserts (no doughnuts yet!). We encourage you to use our website to order food in advance, and while we will have tables available, we also encourage folks to bring chairs and blankets.

Folks can arrive as early as 5pm and can order food as early as 5:00pm.