AMOEBA has been involved with raising money for hurricane relief since the hurricane hit New Orleans in 2005--and we have raised over $160,000 along the way.
Every year at Amoeba we go crazy for our favorite holiday… Fat Tuesday, the day of our annual Mardi Gras parade and freakout! We love the music and flavor of New Orleans, and so we like to create our own California version of this traditional Crescent City holiday at our stores. It’s a day of decorating, feasting, dancing, and of course, getting dressed up in masks and robes and parading around the store (and around the neighborhood!). As they say in N’Awlins, laissez les bon temps roulez – let the good times roll!
The week before we decorated the store with purple, green and gold streamers and banners. On the big day it looked amazing, with rich colors and wild decorations everywhere you looked. We kicked things off in the morning with some Professor Longhair on the stereo (“Take Me To the Mardi Gras”) and started dishing out the beads… everyone looked great and the customers got into the act too. Employees donned crazy hats and feathered tiaras – you could tell when you walked in that something was up! Lots of customers with New Orleans origins or connections were happily surprised to see their hometown holiday recreated at Amoeba.
All day long the excitement built up higher and higher as parade time drew near. At 4:00 our guest musicians took the L.A. stage to warm things up – The 2nd Line Saviour Parade Band with Eddie Baytos, a 6-piece combo with trumpet, tuba, trombone and percussion. They played some rollicking Bayou oldies while we assembled the floats and frolickers. We rolled out the traditional Yellow Submarine, pirate and Baron Samedi (voodoo god of the underworld) along with our newest float – a giant tribute to James Brown!
Noisemakers and poppers were already going off as parade time approached. At 4:30 we announced the arrival of the King of Mardi Gras – Amoeba’s own Terry Smith, in royal robe and crown, who led his gang of merry revelers down the stairs in regal fashion. And the parade was off! While the wildly garbed DJ Crisceaux spun old-time second line parade tunes on wax, the parade wound twice around the main room and once around the Jazz room. Lots of friends and family joined us, including some very young paraders! Adventurous customers joined the parade, others looked on in total bemusement. The din of noisemakers, poppers, tambourines and horns was incredible. Even the Second Line Saviors joined the procession.
Our King of Mardi Gras led us out the front door and onto Sunset Boulevard to bring the festivities to the neighborhood. We took over the sidewalk and street corner with an explosion of color and activity – a psychedelic street show like L.A. has never seen! We stood and hollered and hooted at the rush hour traffic, who loved it, honking and waving back at us. We tossed beads into the windows of passing cars and generally gave folks a taste of carnival that they don’t normally get sitting in traffic.
After making a scene on the corner, the King took matters into his own hands and started leading us down Cahuenga towards Santa Monica Blvd.! The band came along with us and we rolled the floats down the sidewalk, creating a mobile Mardi Gras happening for the amazed onlookers. The band played Crescent City soul the whole way. We took a detour through the back parking lot, paraded back up Ivar past the Arclight Cinema and re-entered Amoeba.
The band re-took the stage for some final soulful numbers and we shook our tambourines and howled for more. Finally we ditched the floats by the stage and wound down the craziness. DJ Rey Rey Nagini closed things out with a lowdown set of Bayou funk.
It was our wildest parade ever – til next year! Check out these photos from San Francisco and Hollywood, and don’t forget to celebrate Mardi Gras with us every year.
