Boredoms Revisit This Whole 'Lots Of Drummers' Thing With 88 BoaDrum in L.A. And Williamsburg, Brought To You By Nike Sportswear
Last year at Brooklyn's Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Boredoms orchestrated an unforgettable spectacle that ranked among my favorite shows of 2007 with their 77 minute, 77 drummer 77BoaDrum piece. On 7/7/07. It was billed as a "once in a lifetime" event, but that was before Nike appropriated some funds for Yamantaka Eye to reprise the concept with an all-new/all-drum piece, while still packing a numerological punch by adding 11 drummers and 11 minutes. And holding it on 8/8/08. Just as last year's started at 7:07PM, this year's will take place at 8:08PM -- but in a nice bi-coastal bonus, we're talking a start time of 8:08 in both L.A. and NYC. What you won't see reprised is what's depicted in that pic: Unfortunately, Yamantaka Eye won't be conducting either drum line.
Via P4K:
The Los Angeles event will take place beginning at 8:08 PM PST at the city's famed La Brea Tar Pits, and will feature 88 drummers selected by both the Boredoms and 88Boadrum artistic director Hisham Bharoocha of Soft Circle. The New York event, conducted on behalf of the Boredoms by Brooklyn's own Gang Gang Dance, goes down at 8:08 PM EST at the Williamsburg waterfront.
Like last year it's free, but to avoid last year's unorganized mess at the door, this year will feature physical tickets instead of vague RSVP lists. They'll be available here on Friday 7/18. The rub: New Yorkers, you'll be choosing between this and APW, which is also going down on 8/8 (yes, it's one of the Radiohead nights). Don't worry if you miss this second "once in a lifetime" spectacle, though -- there's always September 9th, next year.
If you want an idea for what that many drummers at once sounds like, here's a bit of last year's review:
Yamantaka Eye conducted the spiral of full drum kits (all with three cymbals at least), using his pink baton both to signal rhythmic shifts/swells and to trigger sample pads unleashing resounding, sustained bass/guitar crashes, occasionally lifting the celebration's group trances into more fevered peaks and surges. It was also the coolest game of Telephone ever: Wait patiently rolling on a crash cymbal 'til the drummer ahead of you started a drum fill; study for a second, and start smashing that fill with an eye towards passing it on the next banger down the line. Everything emanated from the Boredom-nucleus though, Eye spitting tribal yells/chants, moving gracefully-then-violently in his baton-triggers. A booze cruise traversing the East River slowed to a crawl by the Park, and even though the "ba-da-ba-da-bum-bum" occasionally approached deafening levels, if you listened hard enough, you could hear that boatload of drunks simultaneously saying "What the fuck?"
To get a feel for what a ton of drummers looks like, though, here's a ton of photos and video.
Posted at 1:35 PM by amrit
Tags: Boredoms
This is unrelated, but wow, Stereogum really sold their soul to Converse
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heres some food for thought. whats the point in going to a boredoms sponsored event if eye's not even going to be there. this was his project. i know he selected the conductor and all that junk but its his baby. he should be able to make it to at least one of them and it should be kept the same way it was last year. one place and no being ran by a shoe company. i bet its was pretty hecktic last year but hey it worked out.
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Boredoms will be leading the event in LA.
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i would go but Andrew W. K wont be there disguised as a dad this year...
http://tinyurl.com/6djttz
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DJ A-Trak is doing something with Nike too:
http://spin.com/articles/exclusive-video-interview-kanyes-dj-trak-about-his-new-nike-running-man-mix
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Cool, thanks for the info, just got an email that tickets will be distributed free (1 per person) at AMOEBA Hollywood on Friday 7/18 at 10:30 AM. Luckily that is 2 blocks from the office.
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