The annual Tibet House benefit concert is a New York muso institution, a celebration of both the embattled Tibetan culture and the melting-pot aesthetic that still makes the city a dirt-crusted mecca for refugees of all stripes. It’s also a family gathering for the Seventies avant-pop downtown scene, presided over by composer, co-founder, curator and cool uncle Philip Glass. This year Debbie Harry – who Glass aptly introduced as “an icon of American soul” – flanked Tibet House stalwarts Laurie Anderson and Patti Smith alongside other fellow travellers. It’s a measure of the community’s enlightened cool that when an off-duty Miley Cyrus slipped onstage between pal Wayne Coyne and some saffron-robed monks for the group finale of Patti’s “People Have the Power,” barely an eyebrow was raised.
