UPDATED Week 13, Concert Review Day 1: The Boredoms

[UPDATED WITH PHOTOS, MP3s, and VIDEO OF 77BOADRUM]

For the first night of concert-going, Doorknobs and I went to see Japanese noise mavens The Boredoms at Terminal 5--thanks to Roy for not only comping us on the XLR8R list, but also for providing us with 3rd level VIP passes so we could get a premium sightline of the insanity.



For those unfamiliar with the Boredoms, they are a twenty year old band with roots in hardcore and extremist artcore. Early Boredoms stuff is pretty thrashy and of less interest to me, but by '93s Pop Tatari (bizarrely released on Reprise as a major label debut) they had hit on a fascinating and unique sound that fused melody with the noise and thrash. At this point though, even describing them as a "noise" band seems inaccurate because the music of the Boredoms isn't even really that dissonant.



I am really tired and will finish this post tomorrow but for now here's some excellent photos of the show (not taken by me) and a photo and incredibly incredibly unwatchable video I shot with the apparently atrocious video camera on my Palm Treo. The video is of the encore of the show's performance and I dare anyone to try and "watch" the entire 14 minutes--as crappy as the video quality is, the sound is just as awful, as the thunderous drumming and squalls of noise make it sound like I recorded tractor trailers speeding through the Lincoln Tunnel.













Boredoms at Terminal 5, March 30 2008: Encore from Jeffrey Beaumont on Vimeo.


And here are some Boredoms mp3s to give you a sense of what they're like:

Boredoms - "Born to Anal" (from Anal to Anal EP, 1986; rereleased on Onanie Bomb Vs Sex Pistols, 1994)
Boredoms - Super Are (from Super AE, 1998)
Boredoms - Seadrum ( from Seadrum/House of Sun, 1995)

Finally, this last bit is a video of 77 Boadrum, an event organized in New York last year by the Boredoms, where on July 7, they took over Brooklyn Bridge park and led a cast of seventy-seven drummers on a rhythmic odyssey through time and space. It kills me that I had to miss this event, but it was my Dad's wedding and all--sometimes you just can't have everything. Anywhere, here's video documenting the event: