At The Concert for Valor Tuesday night, the National Mall’s aura was definitely infectious.
“I watch HBO so I’ve been seeing it coming up for a while and I was really excited about it,” said Steve Gaudio, who works in commercial real estate development. “I love whenever there’s a big thing going on in D.C.”
Sponsored by HBO, Starbucks, and Chase, the Concert for Valor brought together one of the largest concert crowds D.C. has seen in order “to honor the courage and sacrifice of veterans, active duty service members and their families.” Presenters asked viewers at home to donate their time, money, or services to the 2.6 million veterans who have served since 9/11 by learning more on the event’s website, www.theconcertforvalor.com.
“Don’t forget the ‘the,’” joked Jack Black, who later presented Metallica. “Concert For Valor wasn’t available.”
Much like the ‘We Are One’ concert celebrating President Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration, big names like Jessie J, George Lopez, and Bruce Springsteen touted the commercials. And, just like that previous concert, this one was free. A member of the event staff said that attendance “definitely got close to [the predicted] 800,000” people, double the number of ‘We Are One.’ About 12,000 tickets and seats were set aside for military members and their families, according to The Washington Post. However, the other 788,000 in attendance had to fight for their places.
“The lighting guy at our hotel is working this,” an annual visitor to D.C. said. “I asked him the best place to see this and he said, ‘From your room on your couch.’”
“Everyone in D.C.’s kind of buzzing about it,” said Lauren Michelotti, a waitress at the Hamilton Hotel.
All the roads surrounding the National Mall and the Smithsonian Metro stop were closed and officials started letting people into the area at 10 a.m. for the concert that started at 7 p.m. People brought magazines, laptops, and even juggling apparatuses to entertain themselves for the hours of waiting ahead of them.
Around 5 p.m., the crowd started getting antsy, jumping and storming the gates to get into the sections closest to the stage. ABC 7 News reported National Park Services arrested three people for jumping the fences.
But when the concert finally started, it was worth the wait. From the moment Jennifer Hudson came out and belted the Star Spangled Banner, everyone knew this wouldn’t be a night to forget.
“I have a lot of friends that are across all the branches of the armed forces,” Zac Brown said before his band’s set. “They called and asked us [to perform] and we were so happy to do it.”
Many of the other performers shared the same sentiment in different words. Presenter Meryl Streep told the audience “valor is in our work here tonight” and James Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica, yelled “we finally get to play for our heroes!”
But the loudest noise of the night happened when, at what everyone believed to be the end of Rihanna’s set, green lasers shot out from the stage and circled the sky. The confusing moment broke when she sung the opening lines to her collaborative song ‘The Monster’ and Eminem himself came out to begin the night’s closing act.
Between performers, short films introduced by celebrities like Tom Hanks and Michelle Obama were projected onto the dozen or so Jumbotrons lining the Mall. These videos highlighted veterans profiled in the new book by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran called ‘For Love of Country.’ Most veterans were at the concert and after their profile were awarded with cheers and applause from concertgoers.
“What you cannot take away from me is the spirit to win,” Army Master Sergeant Cedric King said in his profile. During his last tour in Afghanistan, King stepped on an IED. He was put into a medical coma and sent to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where both his legs were amputated. This past September, he completed his first half Ironman. In some of his parting words, King said what everyone hoped The Concert for Valor would do for the world.
“Instead of hurting me,” he added, “you made me better.”