Minimalism at the concert hall

Tomorrow night: The Orb, Dntel, Boom Bip, John Tejada: Be there or be not where I’m at.

This article features a pretentious girl named Dance Commander panning the show:

Her doll-like eyes glitter distantly of candy-flip revolution and terpsichorean terrorism before she dismisses the whole idea. “The fans of the Orb are all in their 30s and making money now,” she says with the finality of a Marxian actuary. “There’s this whole genre of ambient house that Lemon Jelly, Shpongle, and Banco de Gaia make that hit my ears a lot like my parents listening to smooth jazz. Uncomfortably mellow. There’s just a way different zeitgeist now,” she concludes. “The Orb is the sound of steady incomes and predictable sex and day-tripping. Maybe this is because psychedelics aren’t my drug of choice.”

Oh, snap! Dance Commander pulls no punches. LA City Beat has another article about this event in the context of the larger minimalism festival that it’s a part of. Isn’t ‘large minimalism festival’ an oxymoron? It should really be a festival featuring only one act, to be consistent.

Update:Well, I believe Dance Commander was both right and wrong about the show. It was indeed filled with thirtysomethings who were making money. That part was impossible to deny. However, the show was in fact enjoyable without psychedelics. Furthermore, this could mean that in ten years the Walt Disney Concert Hall will be hosting the terrorcore festival when all the kids listening to it hit their thirties and start making money and having predictable sex. I think predictable sex on the part of the audience is what makes a genre mainstream enough to get its own festival at the concert hall.

Who am I kidding? This is LA and it’s of course all about the benjamins. Hurry up and get it together, terrorcore fans, and you can hold next year’s Ides of March party at a swanky venue with great acoustics.

Hey look, it’s 2:30 AM and I’m rambling. Time for brain rest.

More photos in the Flickr set.