Over the past 25 years Red Hot has produced a series of events focusing on live music and happenings in addition to recorded music and video. Our first project, Red Hot + Blue, was designed to be multimedia with music, film, design and art rather than the typical benefit concerts that were popular at the time. But we value live events and the excitement of bringing together performers and an audience, particularly as part of larger projects using music, art and culture to raise awareness and money to fight HIV/AIDS and related health issues.
We started with a series of ‘Dancethons’ promoting AIDS awareness to club kids around the world in 1991, which lead to a variety of unique live performances filmed to help promote and extend albums from Red Hot + Dance through Day of the Dead. We also produced five concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and shows at the original Grand Ole Opry (The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville), Radio City Music Hall, the Eaux Claires Festival and loft parties featuring The National, Beirut, The Dirty Projectors, Jose Gonzales and many others. Our live events have typically been small exclusive performances filmed for Red Hot video specials such as the last recorded appearance by the original line up of the Wu-Tang Clan, Annie Lenox performing with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock live on VH-1, Smashing Pumpkins, The GooGoo Dolls, Lou Reed and The Breeders live on MTV, and The Kronos Quartet at the Edison Studio captured on the original wax cylinder machine, which was the first commercial music recording device dating from the 1890s.