MUSIC MONDAYS: 88 DRUMS

So thanks to my sister, we finally have four responses to the quiz!! And we have a winner too. Congratulations to Christine! You have won an evening with Hugs. At either your or Hugs' request, the evening can be chaperoned. Hugs just had a bath last night so he's feeling clean and confident!

And now for the answers.

1. C: There are 59,000 Chihuahuas in Los Angeles.

2. B: There are 1,262 Chihuahuas named Princess (all of which were featured in the inexcusable Beverly Hills Chihuahua).

3. D: 1986. Meaning my building was built right before buildings became earthquake safe. It must've been retrofitted though because I had quite the ride last week when that thing hit. I actually still have vertigo from it.

4. B: The LA Riots. In case that seems odd to you, you probably don't know about Korean grocers in the hood... I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of my creative answers here.

5. B: Jay Leno. We had a few Dr. Dre guesses. That would've been cool. But no, I saw Jay Leno driving an antique car on Ventura.

6. E: The Petersen ... Everyone said The Hollywood Bowl, including my sister who was at the Hollywood Bowl with me in 1991 when we saw Mandy Potamkin. At least the rest of you have a good excuse. Jules, this was a freebie!! Here's a bonus question for just you. When's my birthday? H

Now onto the music segment of the day. I had the unbelievable pleasure of seeing Eye and The Boredoms conduct 88 drummers on Friday night (8.08.2008, starting at 8:08 of course). The composition was supposed be 88 minutes but it was more like 100. It was amazing the whole time. In that 100 minutes we had everything from rock to tribal to noise to jazz to polyrhythmic soul to anything else you can imagine. I couldn't believe how synced up everything was. No cacophony unless that was the intention of the piece at that specific moment. I've included a few pictures. See how close I was! My ears are popping just thinking about that decibel level.





Then on Saturday night I watched the TIVO'ed opening ceremonies and there were 2008 drummers. My experience doesn't seem as cool any more. Although, the Chinese drummers each had a single drum. These guys on Friday had full drum sets. And the Chinese drummers only played for a few minutes, not a hundred. I think it all evens out in the end, don't you?

In honor of Friday night's experience, I've composed a list of the 5 Craziest Music Events I've witnessed. This is not a list of the 5 best performances. For sure, all the performances on this list were good to great, but that's not a prerequisite. No no no, this is a little of the 5 neatest, most out there, visually stunning and/or audience participatory musical extravaganzas!

IN ABSOLUTELY NO ORDER... Don't believe me, well I'll prove it.

5. or 1. The Flaming Lips Boom Box Show at The Troc in Philly. This was pre-Soft Bulletin. As some remember, the Flaming Lips had a pretty great album that was split amongst 4 Discs that were meant to be played on 4 stereos simultaneously. This album was derived from something that Wayne Coyne used to do in parking lots with a bunch of cars. Each car would get a tape of music and they'd pop the tape in the stereo and with Wayne and others conducting, each car would play the tapes, stop the tapes, turn up the volume, and so on to create a "symphony" of sorts. The Boom box event was the same sort of deal but with boom boxes instead of car stereos. They got 30-40 volunteers from the audience (me included!) to get on stage and control a boom box. Each member of the Lips conducted one third of the boom boxes. They would tell us when to play or stop or crank the volume. So yes, Alex Pudlin was a member of The Flaming Lips for a day.

4. or 2. The Beck Puppet Show at the Wiltern in LA. Marionettes of Beck and band acting out the entire show on a mini stage as the real Beck and band played. Not that Beck's performance was bad but the little Beck certainly had him beat. If you weren't at the show, here's an official video with the same puppets




3. or 1. or 6. Daft Punk at Coachella. The secret of the pyramid is out by now. This is where it all started I think. Maybe not. I'm sure they did the pyramid somewhere else too. They music was pumping but it was really the lights that allowed my Coachella-worn body to dance another step at midnight.

2. or 3. or 10. The Knife at the El Rey in LA. Another electronic visual masterpiece. You can see this whole performance (at a different venue) on DVD. It's not really describable in words. Lots of graphics, lasers, glowing faces, puppet creatures and steel drums. Here's a clip.. and no this IS NOT a music video. This is the live show




1. or 1.5 or 5.8 or 88... The 88 Drummers at the Tar Pits in LA

Here's the last few seconds...