Fans joined hands, heard from victims' loved ones, and swayed to emotionally resonant music at the Fox Theater last night in a powerful fundraiser concert presented by Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop with the goal of uniting Oaklanders in the wake of the devastating Ghost Ship fire that killed 36 people. Among those lost in the blaze that suddenly erupted during a concert held in the live-work warehouse space were musicians, music lovers, and artists, and they were honored last night by 16 performers, all of them but one from the Bay Area.

Cash Askew, to name one example, was a 22-year-old musician and member of the duo Them Are Us Too, and she perished at Ghost Ship two Fridays ago. Her bandmate Kennedy Ashlyn and her girlfriend Anya Taylor played a moving, downcast rendition of the song "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World dedicated to Askew. "We love you, Cash," said Taylor.

Askew was also remembered by Careletta Sue Kay, who performed onstage with Askew's stepfather, Sunny Haire. Haire, like Askew was, is transgender: A guitarist, he would take his step-daughter to The Lexington Club, where he worked as a manager when she was just a child, the Washington Post recalls.

Other covers by artists from the evening included versions of the late Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by the mens' a cappella singing group Conspiracy Of Beards and Rogue Wave's performance of "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye." Another cover, Fantastic Negrito's heartfelt take on "In The Pines," was particularly difficult to forget.

With ticket sales, the Oakland United Concert was expected to raise $300,000 for the Gray Area Foundation and their Arts Oakland Fire Relief Fund, the Mercury News reported. Where that amount will go, as Gray Area's Josette Melchor told the audience, hasn't yet been determined. Her organization, which itself grew out of a live-work space for artists and has expanded to a historic Mission District movie theater, will work with Oakland and the Red Cross to allocate the money raised, she assured the audience.

Melchor was one of many speakers including journalists like Sam Lefebvre of The East Bay Express and Pitchfork, who spoke of the need to protect spaces for artists. Artists, too, waxed elegiac and political. Boots Riley of the Coup said "The only way we know how to pay homage is to play with the joy and the ferociousness with which these people lived their lives."

On a lighter note, Thao Nguyen of San Francisco said that her decade in the city gave her authority to declare that "Oakland is way cooler." Rap group Hieroglyphics, amid a spirited performance, reminded the audience of the solemnity of the benefit: "We lost people in the Ghost Ship, too, so remember all this good feeling is to help people that are suffering," one member said, asking that Oakland United, the cause of the evening, become "a philosophy."

Related: Nine Events Supporting Ghost Ship Fire Victims And Their Families