X|1| DRONE FEST - BASILICA HUDSON, HUDSON, NY [4.24.16]
"...An hour later, a woman walked by and handed us colorful arm-length tubes. She explained that when a man wearing a cowboy hat raised his left hand, we were to spin our tubes over our head—and when he lowered his hand, we would stop.
Ten minutes later, the signal appeared, and as we spun our tubes over our heads they emitted a soft whirring tone. About two dozen other people in the audience were also spinning tubes, some synced to the left hand and others to the right. One middle-aged man with waist-length dreadlocks was having the time of his life, spinning his purple tube with such force I thought he might take off into the sky. Everyone's tube produced a different tone, and I eventually realized the man with the cowboy hat was conducting an impromptu orchestra by raising and lowering his hands in sequence.
Audience members began waking up with irked expressions on their faces as they tried to parse the zany spectacle, and the conductor's flapping arms took on a madcap, Chaplin-esque air. Eventually, he produced a massive white tube and paced around the space, whirling it like a lasso—the tubular equivalent of shredding a guitar solo. To be sure, this piece had a distinct energy not unlike something you might find at Burning Man—and it was also another clever play on the audience-performer dynamic, expanding my ideas of what drone music could be without taking itself too seriously." - Ezra Marcus [LIVE NATION]
Ten minutes later, the signal appeared, and as we spun our tubes over our heads they emitted a soft whirring tone. About two dozen other people in the audience were also spinning tubes, some synced to the left hand and others to the right. One middle-aged man with waist-length dreadlocks was having the time of his life, spinning his purple tube with such force I thought he might take off into the sky. Everyone's tube produced a different tone, and I eventually realized the man with the cowboy hat was conducting an impromptu orchestra by raising and lowering his hands in sequence.
Audience members began waking up with irked expressions on their faces as they tried to parse the zany spectacle, and the conductor's flapping arms took on a madcap, Chaplin-esque air. Eventually, he produced a massive white tube and paced around the space, whirling it like a lasso—the tubular equivalent of shredding a guitar solo. To be sure, this piece had a distinct energy not unlike something you might find at Burning Man—and it was also another clever play on the audience-performer dynamic, expanding my ideas of what drone music could be without taking itself too seriously." - Ezra Marcus [LIVE NATION]