I caught them live once completely by accident in the courtyard at the National Geographic building in DC. It was a swampy humid DC evening, and Danny and I were wandering around. I was busy biting my tongue as complaint after complaint over the lack of random bars in DC rose to my lips - "I mean, shit! What do the people in all the stupid office buildings DO when they're done with work, and want to have a drink before dealing with the hell that is rush hour here? Or what if they hate their spouses but believe in those 'Marriage works' billboards* and need to self-medicate? This makes NO sense! What about people like me who are walking around and want a nice, cold, refreshing glass of booze? Fuck those newfangled flex fuel cars, I run on ethanol! etc." - and suddenly, we saw the sign.
And they were handing out free bottles of water. Thanks, National Geographic!
We found a space in the courtyard close to the stage, because damn my eardrums, I have to be close to the stage. I love being sweated on by hot sexy musician types. When a medium sized crowd was assembled, BBB took the stage by way of a small parade through the crowd wearing masks and playing various percussion and reed instruments. They warmed up the crowd, and then started to really jam. Imagine Israeli, Palestinian, reggae, Balkan, and hiphop musical styles had an orgy, conceived a child, and emigrated to the lower east side in Manhattan. Danny and I got down, because woo! Jews with rhythm! Music with an incredible beat! And dirt and sex and soul and melody and grit! Of course there were all the new-age world-music weirdos on the side who weren't bumping and grinding, but it was all their loss.
Balkan Beat Box has possibly the WORST transition from live show to recording I have ever heard, but take my word for it; their shows are huge totally awesome dance parties because they have incredibly talented musicians. It was funny, reading another blog entry today about music; how a reticence for purchasing unknown musical samplings may be symptomatic of something deeper. For me, it was symptomatic of being broke and fearing retribution from the music industry as a result of illegal downloads, but now there's Ruckus. Ruckus is only good if you're enrolled in a participating university (and it isn't compatible with macs! fuck!), but it's something. (I fully intend to download enough music during my time in grad school to offset my student fees, at the very least.)
But speaking of musical cautiousness, I have no idea how to get people besides Danny to come to the concert with me because I can't describe BBB music in a truncated fashion. Actually, when I first got to grad school and I didn't know any better, I tried to get some of my contemporaries (colleagues?) to come to a Gogol Bordello concert with me. They all glanced awkwardly at their feet and mumbled that Gogol Bordello was "too weird." Whaaaaaaaat. Tickets were $15 at the time. I mean, $15 to go on a wild adventure and see something totally new and wacky and make friends and drink??? But then I learned, and the truth of it is I have very few friends period and absolutely none within my department. And it all started with me happily broadcasting my musical tastes and the fact that I like things that are neither distinctly American mainstream nor American alternative. Whoops.
Maybe having conservative musical taste means you don't make people uncomfortable...? Who knows? Either way, I will be gittin' down on March 31st to some crazyass music, and I will be sweaty, happy, and fulfilled. :)
*There really are billboards here along some roads, I-95 included, that say "Marriage Works." It's not as bad as the random bible quotes further south, but dude. Dude. I find it odd, hilarious, and sort of sad... why do they have to advertise?
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