It’s Time for Boadrum 9
Posted on September 14, 2009
Really stretching for a clever title there. The yearly Boadrum experience rolls on, up to 09/09/09 now. Since it’s kind of ridiculous to think we’d be up to 99 drummers now (88 was already getting pretty shaky as far as keeping everyone in sync goes) the Boredoms decided to take it down to just (just?) 9 drummers this year. The other big change was this year would be indoors, at Terminal 5, making this the second time I’ve seen them there.
Before the show, while puttering around the city my friends and I stopped in at Whole Foods on 2nd Ave. We saw EYE buying some drinks and snacks, but we weren’t sure if it was actually him or just another one of those dreadlocked Japanese guys you see wandering NY so often. He was wearing a wonky hat though, and later at the concert our suspicions were confirmed when that same weird train conductor looking thing was on his head. Weird.
Lichens, who I had never heard before, did an opening set by sitting in a chair and layering his voice over and over and over and over until it was a crazed rainforest of noise. Actually I think he went a little too far at the end and turned something that could have been an interesting listen into a bit of a clusterfuck.
At 9:09 (of course, you know the drill at this point) the Boredoms + a few friends took the stage. But there was something strange. One of the drum sets sat empty. What could this mean? Was someone sick? Also why were only EYE and Yoshimi on stage? All my questions were answered a few minutes later when YO2RO was literally carried out on 4 men’s shoulders, drum set and all.
The rest of the show was about an hour of bombastic throwdown. A more mellow encore followed and that was that. It was nice because 88 was in many ways very similar to 77. I suppose that isn’t too surprising, one was in New York and the other in LA, so there was probably very little overlap outside of freaky obsessives like yours truly. The one irritating thing about the show was the sudden prevalence of the iPhone 3GS. I realize I just embedded a video taken with one and yes, I took one picture too, but come on guys, let’s just enjoy the show and how be sticking your phone up in the air every 5 seconds. I’d rather you just have your hands out spastically like the guy who looked to be shakily praising the lord near the front all concert than watch the stage through your viewfinder. That being said, here are some useful links for those of you who didn’t make it!
- Flickr photo search for “Boadrum 9″
- Youtube video search for “Boadrum 9″
- 99 pictures & 9 reviews of the Boredoms’ Boadrum 9 @ Terminal 5 in NYC on 9/9/9
See you next year at 10/10/10. I was just thinking, if the time keeps being pushed back we’re going to have to either do 12/12/12 at midnight just as 12/11/12 ends or at noon. A midday winter concert could be fun, maybe we could all have a snowball fight after.