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Archive for the ‘Blue Man Group’ Category

Blue Man Group (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, May 25, 2022)

Posted in Arrested Development, Blue Man Group, New Brunswick, NJ, State Theatre on May 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 25, 2022] Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group began in 1987. In 1997 I was working in New York City in Greenwich Village and every day I thought I would love to check out this crazy looking show.

I never did.

Over the years, Blue Man Group became a phenomenon, a punchline and much more.  I had no idea that in 2017 it was purchased by Cirque de Soliel.  It even became a plot line on Arrested Development.

And all that time I still thought that I’d like to experience the show.

So when State Theatre announced that Blue Man Group was touring, I purchased tickets for the four of us, figuring we would all enjoy it.  I gather that in the 35 years the show has changed, but some things are still the same.  They’re still all in Blue.  There are still marshmallows.  There’s still music and there’s still a kind of sensory overload.

The set was wild with lights flashing and scaffolding and walls on either side that were designed for climbing.  The set is lit up long before the Blue Men come out and you can really study everything that’s up there.  We were pretty far back so we couldn’t see it very closely.  But there were screens with Pong on it and other things that seemed futuristic and retro at the same time.

I knew that the Blue Man Group played music–they have even done a Tiny Desk.  And that they make a lot of their own instruments (mostly weird things out of PVC).  I didn’t realize there would be a (really loud, rocking) backing band [apparently Corky Gainsford on guitar Chris Reiss on the strings and drummer Chris Schultz].

Audience participation is a fun thing with the Blue Man Group.  There are parts that are clearly scripted–bits in which they come out an interact with the audience.  But there are also ways in which the audience’s reactions result in the Blue Men reacting in turn–as if they are aliens unsure about what to make of the audience in general.

And I think that’s what makes the whole thing so magical.  The three guys really do keep in character the whole time–and that character is truly alien.  Truly like beings from another world doing their thing, trying to communicate with humans in some way.  It is strangely affecting and strangely moving. (more…)

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Tiphanie Yanique-“God’s Caravan” (New Yorker, November 4, 2019)

Posted in Adele, Anderson .Paak, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Andrew Bird, Barbara Hannigan, Bernie and the Believers, Bible, Blue Man Group, Brandi Carlile, Café Tacvba, CHAI, Dan Deacon, Dirty Three, Dr. Dog, Fragile Rock, George Li, Gogol Bordello, H.E.R., iLe, Jorge Drexler, Juanes, Julien Baker, Laura Gibson, Lizzo, Mac Miller, Marbles, Martin Luther King, Memphis, TN, Michael Jackson, Mitski, Mon Laferte, Monsieur Periné, Mucca Pazza, Natalia Lafourcade, Neko Case, New Yorker, Noname, NPR/PRI/PBS, PJ Morton, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Racism, Red Baraat, Religion, Rev Sekou and the Seal Breakers, Short Story, Superorganism, Tamino, Tank and the Bangas, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Thao Nguyen, The Cristina Pato Trio, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiphanie Yanique, Tom Jones, Vic Chesnutt, Yusuf on November 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TINY DESK PLAYLISTS (2019).

As on October 1, NPR has started the Tiny Desk Playlist page.

As of today there are 9 Playlists on the page.  I’m not going to comment on them, as I’ve already posted about all of these shows (except CHAI as of now).  I might disagree with some of these lists, but whatever the case they are a good introduction to Tiny Desks if you haven’t already seen one.

5 Tiny Desk Concerts That Will Literally Make You Cry
• Julien Baker (read more)
• Yusuf/Cat Stevens (read more)
• Bernie and The Believers (read more)
• Rev. Sekou and The Seal Breakers (read more)
• Barbara Hannigan (read more)

The 5 Most Uplifting Tiny Desk Concerts
• Lizzo (read more)
• Superorganism (read more)
• Fragile Rock (read more)
• Dan Deacon (read more)
• Mucca Pazza (read more)

The 5 Wildest Tiny Desk Concerts
• Gogol Bordello (read more)
• Red Baraat (read more)
• The Cristina Pato Trio (read more)
• George Li (read more)
• Dirty Three (read more)

The Best-Sounding Tiny Desk Concerts, Vol. 1 [selected by “the guy mixing the performances and bopping his head along just off (and sometimes on) screen” Josh Rogosin].
• Monsieur Periné (read more)
• Andrew Bird (read more)
• Nick Hakim (read more)
• Tedeschi Trucks Band (read more)
• PJ Morton (read more)

The Best Of The Very Beginning Of Tiny Desk Concerts
• Laura Gibson (read more)
• Vic Chesnutt (read more)
• Tom Jones (read more)
• Thao Nguyen (read more)
• Dr. Dog (read more)

The 5 Best ‘Before They Were Stars’ Tiny Desk Concerts
• Brandi Carlile (read more)
• Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals (read more)
• Adele (read more)
• H.E.R. (read more)
• Mitski (read more)

Tiny Desk Trick Or Treat: Our 5 Favorite Concerts In Costume
• Neko Case’s Halloween Special (read more)
• Blue Man Group (read more)
• Mucca Pazza (read more)
• CHAI (read more)
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band (read more)

#ElTiny: The Best Latinx Tiny Desk Concerts, Vol. 1
• Natalia Lafourcade (read more)
• Jorge Drexler (read more)
• Juanes & Mon Laferte (read more)
• iLe (read more)
• Café Tacvba (read more)

Lianne La Havas’ 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts
• Tank And The Bangas
• Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals
• Noname
• Tamino
• Mac Miller

[READ: October 28, 2019] “God’s Caravan”

This story opens with boys crouching in the dirt shooting marbles.  I assumed it was set in the 1950s, so I was surprised to see that the boy knew of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk.  But it is set in Memphis, Tennessee–“Soulsville the black part.”

Earl was kicking butt and winning marbles left and right when the boys heard an ice cream truck trundle up.  But this was no ice cream truck.  Rather it was a van and it was playing “I’ve come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee.”  On the side of the van, painted in “blood of Jesus” red were the words “God’s Caravan.”  The speakers then broadcast “When I say, ‘Ride or die’…you say ‘Amen.'”

The voice said “Ride or Die” and Earl and the other boys all shouted back “Amen.”

The door opened and there was the pastor, dressed in black judge’s robes.  He said he had sweets for their hearts. (more…)

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John Layman & Rob Guillory–Chew: Volume Twelve: Sour Grapes (2016)

Posted in Adventure, Blue Man Group, Chickens, Death, Delusions, Food, Food Luv, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Humiliation, John Layman, Marriage (Happy), Political Humor, Religion, Rob Guillory, Sex, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on May 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

  SOUNDTRACK: BLUE MAN GROUP Tiny Desk Concert #567 (September 26, 2016).

This Tiny Desk Concert is probably the most fun right from th get go.

It opens with three men in blue marching through the NPR offices.  They go through backstage places, grabbing items.  The go through the DJ booth and even interrupt Corva Coleman’s weather forecast.

They even pull Bob away from his desk as they set up.  And then we see the blue men in action.

I remember seeing ads for Blue Man Group when I worked in Manhattan decades ago.  But I never actually saw them (something i regret).  And indeed, I’m not the only one who remembers their humble beginnings:

Josh Rogosin, our engineer for the Tiny Desk, first saw them in their early days, some 25 years ago at New York’s Astor Place Theatre. He told me how the Blue Men would retrofit some of their theatrical magic — including their custom-made instruments, confetti cannons and streamers — to fit this small desk space.  instead of installing their entire signature PVC instrument, what ended up behind the desk was about a third of it. On the right side of the desk, their Shred Mill makes its internet debut: It’s a drum machine triggered by magnets that changes rhythm depending where they are placed on the home-made variable-speed conveyor belt. They also invented something called a Spinulum, whose rhythmic tempo is controlled by rotating a wheel that plucks steel guitar strings.

So the guys, covered in blue (closeup cameras suggests to me that they are wearing gloves and masks?) play a number of home-made instruments (you can read a full description on the instruments below).  In addition to thw home made instruments, there is a Chapman stick bass guitar and a conventional drummer.

And they sure do get some cool sounds out of these items.

“Vortex” has its melody on the PVC pipes with the spinumlum and once the song really gets going in the middle, with the stick playing a cool melody and the cimbalon playing a sweet plucked melody, it’s really quite a pretty song.

For “The Forge,” the stick plays some cool scratchy melodies while two guys play the PVC tubes (I like that there’s a mirror mounted above them so you can see what they’re doing).  The cimbalon is put to good use in more pretty melodies.

“Meditation for Winners” is hilarious.  They play an old scratchy record with a really intense guy doing intense meditation.   They play really catchy music behind it.  They go into the audience and grab people to breathe in and out, and stretch.  Or doing dragon breath.  Then they chant a positive affirmation “I am the best at being relaxed.”  The way the meditation goes from Namaste into something else is pretty great as are the confetti cannons.

This makes me wish I had seen them 25 years ago even more now.

[READ: February 15, 2017] Chew: Volume Twelve

This is the concluding arc to the amazing (and disturbing) series Chew.  It covers issues 56-60 and includes Demon Chicken Poyo.

Chapter 1 begins with an introduction to Tony Chu, Cibopath.  By now we know who he is and what he does–he eats things (or people) and knows the history of whatever he just ate.  We are reminded that the only food that he does not get a psychic sensation from is beets.

The end of the previous book showed the death of Mason and his instruction that in order to save the world Tony must eat him.  Tony does not want to (obviously) but he must.  But the joke is on him because the last thing that Mason ate before killing himself was a big plate of beets–meaning he is totally blocking Tony’s abilities and that Tony will have to suffer through Mason’s long and tedious explanation of everything (this makes Colby crack up, which is quite funny). (more…)

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