Boredoms Perform '77 BOADRUM' @ Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Brooklyn, NY 7/7/07

This past Saturday was the day of 7, a day on which we fell in love with the drummers, another and another... If you didn't get to DUMBO early enough, you didn't get in, and if you didn't get in, you'll never get a chance to see it again: legendary experimental outfit Boredoms staged their "once-in-a-lifetime" show on 7/7/07, featuring 77 drummers, starting at 7:07, and hypnotizing hipsters for the following 101 minutes with majestic and crashing waves of polyrhythm. This was a set piece, though a brief conversation with Than Luu (from Black Gold, one of the 74 drummers joining Boredoms for the show) revealed that their early morning soundcheck was, essentially, their rehearsal.

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?"

TON of pics after the jump, including a diagram of the drummers' layout and some vid by somebody who apparently was sitting right next to us.

FULL LIST OF '77 BOADRUM' DRUMMERS
Drum leaders:
01 - Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle / Pixeltan)
02 - Tim Dewit (Gang Gang Dance)
03 - Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt)
04 - Dave Nuss (No Neck Blues Band / Under Satans Sun)
05 - Jaiko Suzuki (Electro Putas)
06 - Jesse Lee (White Magic)
07 - Ryan Sawyer (Tall Firs / Stars Like Fleas)
08 - Kid Millions (Oneida)
09 - Andy McLeod (Howling Hex / Modest Mouse)
10 - Aaron Moore
11 - Robin Easton

Other drummers:
12 - Sara Lund (Unwound)
13 - Jim Black
14 - Andrew W.K.
15 - Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat)
16 - Miggie (Blood On The Wall)
17 - Brian Tamborello (Psychic Ills)
18 - Andee Connors (A Minor Forest / Lumen)
19 - John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man)
20 - Taylor Richardson (Sunburned Hand of the Man)
21 - Chris Millstein
22 - Abby Portner (First Nation)
23 - Aviram Cohen (Soiled Mattress and The Springs)
24 - Allison Busch (Awesome Color)
25 - Warren Huegel (Tussle)
26 - Nathan Corbin (Excepter)
27 - Clare Amory
28 - Jonathan Lockie (Sightings)
29 - Josh Bonati (Aa)
30 - Nadav Havusha (Aa)
31 - Aron Wahl (Aa)
32 - Jeffrey Salane (Panthers)
33 - Jim Sykes
34 - David Aron (Koi Pond)
35 - Michael Catano
36 - Spencer Herbst (Matta Lama)
37 - Jim Siegel (Cul De Sac and Damo Suzuki)
38 - Mike Pride (MDC, FUSHITSUSHA, John Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide)
39 - Nick DeCarmine
40 - Marianne Kozlowski (The Punks)
41 - Than Luu (M. Ward)
42 - Dave Bergander (Celebration)
43 - Michael Evans (God Is My Co-Pilot)
44 - Andrya Ambro
45 - Justin DeRosa
46 - Hart Mingus (Negative Approach)
47 - Matthias Schulz (Enon/Holy Fuck)
48 - Josh Madell (Antietam, Other Music)
49 - Matt (No Neck Blues Band)
50 - Jim Abramson (Dymaxion)
51 - Oran Canfield (Child Abuse)
52 - Adriana Magaña (Crash Worship)
53 - Keith Connolly (No Neck Blues Band)
54 - Travis Harrison
55 - Jared Barron
56 - Jason Kourkounis (Delta 72 / Hot Snakes)
57 - Eric Cohen (Caroliner)
58 - Daniel Franz (Arbouretum)
59 - Christopher Brokaw (Codeine)
60 - Jared Burak (Wet Cement)
61 - Christopher Powell (Icy Demons/Man Man)
62 - Sadie Laska (I.U.D.)
63 - Pete Vogl (Koi Pond)
64 - Barbara Schauwecker
65 - AJ Edminson (Favourite Sons)
66 - David Grubbs
67 - John McSwain (VICE)
68 - Dave Abramson (Climax Golden Twins)
69 - Alan Licht
70 - Rick Prior
71 - Kayrock
72 - Dave LeBleu (Prefuse 73/Mercury Program)
73 - Lizzy Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance)
74 - Alianna Kalaba (We Ragazzi)

Posted at 5:50 PM in Video
Tags: Boredoms

6 Comments

That looks like Jeremy from NMH and A Hack and A Hacksaw in the 7th picture from the bottom (blue shades girl)

Posted by: Bret at 07/09/07 7:01 PM | Reply
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i'm not saying which one, but at least one picture made me snort and laugh.

amazing pics, though. sad to have missed it.

Posted by: obla at 07/09/07 9:55 PM | Reply
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I don't know. I feel like the rhythm section was kinda dragging.

Posted by: iAdam at 07/09/07 10:39 PM | Reply
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Further history was made after the performance when all of the gear was stolen, resulting in the largest theft of musical gear ever.

Posted by: limozeenz at 07/09/07 11:28 PM | Reply
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ANDREW WK FTW

Posted by: johnny at 07/09/07 11:41 PM | Reply
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this is my friend. he sometimes enjoys fraggle rock. thank you.

Posted by: word at 07/18/07 2:11 AM | Reply
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