Saturday, July 21, 2007

Artscape/Exotic Hypnotic: Crown of Forks

Crown of Forks @ Artscape/Exotic Hypnotic, Langsdale Auditorium, July 20, 2007, Baltimore, MD

It took a long time for Crown of Forks to set up their equipment. And once I recognized the inherent danger of setting up a weed whacker in close proximity to an inflatable kiddie pool filled with ketchup I hastily made my way out of harm's way. This proved to be a wise move as the clean-up time would prove to be twice as long as the set-up. And the "performance" itself was completed in mere moments.

The stench of that most foul of condiments wasn't the only thing that stunk in this performance. As a listener, and as an audience member, I can tolerate a lot and have more patience than most. But this one goes into the hall of fame for worst concert experience ever. If a piece fails because of poor execution or lack of merit in the initial idea I'm okay with that. But this was not an idea or even a conceptually defensible work of art. This was a stunt hatched by juvenile idiots and a bad idea badly executed. It's crap like this that gives "experimental music" a bad reputation - and understandably so.

1 comment:

the improvising guitarist said...

Well, that’s not the kind of thing you read in a blog everyday.

…This one goes into the hall of fame for worst concert experience ever…. It's crap like this that gives "experimental music" a bad reputation - and understandably so.

Uh-oh. Doesn’t sound like you had a good time.
Oh well, count your blessings; at least you weren’t on stage (my worst concert experience may well be ones in which I was up there).

tig