Summer 2008 Day Three: Bang on a Can Marathon

Tonight was a quiet night. Certainly quieter than last night. Perhaps because I'm still slightly deafened by that SL cluster...
Headed down to the World Financial Center (which, if you've never been there, is just across the street from the WTC site). It's lots of marble, lots of shops, and a huge atrium. It's lots of cool. I was there for the Bang on a Can Marathon which is self-operating, but is this year a part of the river-to-river festival.

It's very eclectic and, if you stay for the whole 12 hours (6pm Saturday to 6am Sunday), I'm sure you can hit just about every kind of music. But I was there from about 8:40 to 11:30. I walked in during Caleb Burhan's _no_ ...which was...interesting. The Hartt Bass Band was awesome, but then I'm a sucker for string instruments so......yeah. My friend Philly bo Billy Gutierrilly joined me then and we got to watch the Young People's Chorus performing "Every Stop on the F Train" which was pretty neat.

Then the Bang on a Can All-Stars performed some pieces just as Philly's boyfriend joined us and we moved up to the back of the atrium. The atrium is beautiful. The geometric design of the glass along with the marble pillars and palm trees make it kind of surreal and a very interesting venue, although it lacked the appropriate acoustics, to be sure. The All-Stars took a break and Owen Pallett took the stage. Owen Pallet is an incredible performer. Philly and Garth were very excited to see him onstage again and this heightened my anticipation of his performance but nothing could have really prepared me for the magnitude of his genius.

Of course, as I've stated, I'm a helluva sucker for string instruments so...anyone with a violin is gonna get me good, but this guy was really really amazing. After his solo performance, Owen played violin for an All-Stars performance, ending the number by looping all of the instruments and, for a good 2.5 minutes, there was simply Owen on the pedals, and no one else onstage moved. Really really amazing. We stuck around for one more All-Stars performance and then headed out.

All in all, a wonderful experience and a very new one, at that. I think maybe next year I'll bring a pillow and wait it out a little longer. Although, i have to say, the discovery of such a fine establishment as Thunder Lingerie (see very blurry picture above) was certainly worth leaving when we did!