blackbird singing…
Wednesday evening, 3/24, eighth blackbird and two collaborators,
Steven Mackey and Rinde Eckert performed “Slide”, a multi-media
show created by Mackey/Eckert based on a lab experiment where
subjects were shown un-focused slides of common objects and
were asked to guess what they were seeing. Then when the slide
was brought into focus, they were graded on their success rate.
The music wasn’t programmatic according to the study, but the lyrics
sung by Rinde made references to the theme.
I can’t adequately describe the whole event, but I’ll say the highlights
for me were the blowing on wine bottles and the ceremonial banging
of the bass drum by 8bb members.
Steve Mackey backed the whole piece on the electric guitar on stage
right, with occasional deep bass guitar by cellist Matt Photinos.
(I always knew those two instruments were simpatico.)
Just like last night for Fulcrum Point, the audience was sparse,
about 150 by my estimate. But for 8bb the few attendees got
a real experience to remember.
