Thursday night, the Sun Devil Fitness Complex at ASU West campus was transformed from a young bro’s heaven into a West Coast avant-garde experiment in electronic music.
The mad scientist, Daniel Lopatin, stage name Oneohtrix Point Never, performed at what he called “one of the weirdest shows (he’s) ever played.” The artist filled the converted basketball court in the complex with the cutting edge of performance art. It truly felt like the future was now.
The Modern and Contemporary Art Club put on the event, which was paid for by USG West. One of the organizers, interdisciplinary arts and performance senior Michael Gelinas, told me that he wished the gym was still open to those who wanted to work out. It would have definitely fit the mood of the evening — a coherent avant-garde aesthetic coming together in a gym in Glendale.
The crowd, half standing near the stage and half sitting in rows of chairs in the back of the performance area, was in awe with cult-like rapture, listening to songs assembled with different elements.
Pots and pans banging, garbage truck-inspired noises, nuclear submarine sounds and bass so deep my teeth rattled: These are elements of the songs that made up the evening.
It was a concert where people were seen and could be seen in the Glendale gymnasium. In attendance were either extras from FX’s “American Horror Story: Coven” or dressed in the latest in alternative college attire.
No matter what you were wearing, however, the concert was free. The crowd was almost as unmoving as Lopotkin, preferring to clap at the end of each song rather than dance or even bob along to each.
Then again, this type of ambient music with a heavy bass underpinning was not house music at all. It fit that people were not dancing.
A monitor behind the stage where Lopotkin manipulated the noise with little affectation projected different visuals. The latest in net art to words flashing on the screen tied the whole performance together.
This was definitely the hardest part of the evening for this reporter to pin down. The projections did not match each song, as far as I could tell, but did manage to match the ethereal nature of each track.
One of my favorite pieces of the night, “Boring Angel,” sounded much like as 2015-ified version of Philip Glass’ 1982 “Glassworks.”
Accompanying this set were crystalline structures that, upon repetition, melted and transformed thanks to the latest in video-editing technology. Ascending and descending patterns was the basis of this song, but was quickly fuzzed out by the end of the track.
Every person in the crowd — of which there were many — knew what they were getting when they came to ASU West for this concert.
Although ASU West and the Modern and Contemporary Art Club put on avant-garde and experimental art at a frightening level of efficiency, this really put West on the map as far as the reach and mass appeal.
Tell the reporter what your favorite ambient/experimental musicians are at pnorthfe@asu.edu or follow @peternorthfelt on Twitter
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