Three members of The Go-Go’s teamed up with some special guests to play a private backyard charity concert on Saturday, August 23, in Los Angeles. The event was the 13th annual edition of the Rock and Roll Carnival, a fundraiser for the Musack organization.
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According to the charity’s website, Musack “gives underprivileged kids and teens a voice through music by providing guitars, drums, and support for music teachers … wherever the need arises.”
Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin, keyboardist/guitarist Charlotte Caffey, and drummer Gina Schock performed as The Go’s, playing a set of their famous band’s songs with some celebrity guest singers.
Joining The Go’s were Lisa Loeb, Letters to Cleo frontwoman Kay Hanley, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, comedian Margaret Cho, Reno 911! co-star Thomas Lennon, and, wrapping up the set, Jack Black. Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen played bass with the group.
According to Setlist.fm, Lennon kicked of the set with a performance of the 1982 Go-Go’s hit “Vacation.” The actor sang the song dressed as his Reno 911! character Lieutenant Jim Dangle. As seen in a video posted on The Go-Go’s’ social media pages, Wiedlin quipped before the band kicked into the tune, “A love a man in a uniform.”
Black hit the stage wearing a tie-dye T-shirt with a wolf on it, and delivered an energetic rendition of The Go-Go’s’ 1981 smash “We Got the Beat” as he showed off some fun and frenetic dance moves. The song transitioned into a cover of the Black Sabbath classic “Paranoid.” As the performance neared its end, Black dragged some audience members onto the stage, and the other singers also joined him.
More About the Charity Show
The Go’s’ set also featured Cho singing “Head over Heels,” Hanley performing her Letters to Cleo song “Here & Now” and the Go-Go’s deep cut “This Town,” and Loeb singing the classic “Our Lips Are Sealed.”
Hanna performed two songs, including the early Go-Go’s rarity “Fun with Ropes.”
Before the Go-Go’s set, Armisen also performed. An online video shows him playing his punk tribute tune “Fist Fight!,” with Wiedlin, Caffey, and Schock on backing vocals. Armisen famously performed the song during a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2010 that also featured Dave Grohl playing drums.
Other performers during the charity gig included Lynval Golding of The Specials and Robyn Hitchcock.
A VIP fundraising event for Musack held Friday, August 22, featured performances by Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys, Gerald Casale of Devo, and RZA of Wu-Tang Clan.
Visit Musack.org for more information about the charity.
More About The Go-Go’s
The Go-Go’s last performed with its full lineup at the 2025 Cruel World Festival on May 17 in Brookside Park in Pasadena, California.
Frontwoman Belinda Carlisle currently is in Europe, where she’s promoting the upcoming release of her latest solo album, Once Upon a Time in California. Due out August 29, the album is a 10-track collection of cover tunes paying tribute to the pop music that informed Carlisle’s California upbringing and “shaped her musical identity.”
The singer will be launching a brief European solo tour on August 31 in Bochum, Germany.
Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine, meanwhile, now lives in London. A peek at her Instagram page shows that she was on a trip to Paris with her daughter over the weekend.
(Photo by Jeremy Joslin/Courtesy of Musack)
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