NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — A living-room conversation among musicians Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Antony resulted in a high-octane benefit concert last night at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn to protest the war in Iraq, about to enter its sixth year.

"At this point many people are opposed to the war but not sure what to do," Anderson said at a press conference before the concert. "This is really a grass-roots thing. We've organized it ourselves."

Anderson performed a musical catalogue of grievances from the war to global warming to poverty — all set to a techno beat. Norah Jones, sporting a bob haircut, crooned a melancholy ballad about President George Bush's 2004 re-election.

Displaying an impressive set of biceps in a tight black tank-top, Reed, 66, rocked the house with "Voices of Freedom." Talking Heads co-founder David Byrne, choreographer Bill T. Jones and activist-musician Moby also performed.

"As New Yorkers we are concerned that after all these years this thing is still going on," Reed said before the concert.

More than 1,000 people packed the riverfront arts venue to raise $15,000 for two nonprofits, United For Peace and Justice, a national coalition of more than 1,400 grassroots groups working to end the war, and Iraq Veterans Against the War, which calls for the withdrawal of military forces from Iraq.

In between performances, speakers such as Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" actor Richard Belzer, bashed the Bush administration and reminded the audience of the deaths of Iraqi civilians since the war began on March 20, 2003.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' photographs of maimed US soldiers and civilians lined the exposed brick walls of St. Ann's vast foyer. The portraits were commissioned by HBO to accompany its documentary, "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," produced by "The Sopranos" actor James Gandolfini.