To Write Love On Hear Arms Heavy and Light tour made its final stop at the House of Blues Orlando on February 18, 2013. It was an evening filled with songs, conversation, hope, and tears. The show was just not a concert--it was a vision. A vision set forth by its founder, Jamie Tworkowski. It was a show that projected a heavy but yet light message about his friend, David McKenna, an Orlando native who lost his life at age 33 on Interstate 4 in Seminole county in December 2012.
Opening for the night was Jamie Tworkowski who stood on the stage covered by a bright spotlight. He spoke softly to the attentive crowd. The crowd was so focused that the only person speaking in the entire venue was Jamie who talked about the entire tour and his gained experience of taking To Write Love On Her Arms on the road.
Renee Yohe took the stage. It showed she was nervous by the sound of her voice and the goosebumps that could clearly be seen. She had a right to be nervous as she was speaking about her recently lost best friend, David McKenna. Renee sang lightly from her soul while projecting heavy emotion. Renee is so special and so unique that a movie "Renee" was created from her life experiences.
Now, Now played an acoustic set this time around on their second stop in Orlando. The trio from Minnesota supplied a unique and soft sound with two female singers/guitarists and a male on the drums. Leader singer, Cacie Dalager has such a soft and supple voice while Jess Abbot complimented the background vocals. They were recently on The Jimmy Fallon Show in November 2012.
Will Anderson of Parachute and Anthony Rangeri of Bayside both performed in stellar acoustical sets. In between sets, Anis Mojgani (poet) provided his inspirational spoken word for the audience while stagehands changed out the stage for the next artist. It was different but nice to occupy the crowd instead of the venue being pumped full of music during that time.
John Foreman from Switchfoot headlined for the night. "I'm inviting you into my living room tonight as you can tell by the two lamps" he jokingly stated. After Anthony Rangeri's set the crowded screamed for an encore. They got what they asked for as he joined John Foreman for the opening of his set. John decided to go completely "unplugged" and disconnected himself from his guitar amp and his microphone. It was up to the fans to help him sing. A connection was made at this point between John and his fans that would last for the rest of the evening if not for the rest of their lives.
To Write Love On Her Arms in a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery. Since 2006, TWLOHA has responded to 170,000 messages from 100 countries while giving more than $1,000,000 to treatment and recovery. TWLOHA is a local movement based out of Melbourne, FL.
TWLOHA is sponsoring the National Eating Disorders Walk occurring on February 24, 2013, at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.
