The Japanese noise-rock band, the Boredoms took over the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles Friday night in an attempt to one-up last year’s 77Boadrums concert in Brooklyn. A year, a month, and a day later the 88Boardums event was half-performance and half-spectacle. The show’s musical director Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle) pieced together an orchestra of eighty-eight drummers, each with their own drum kit, to play along side the Boredoms in celebration of 8/8/08. Imagine a drum circle on steroids and you have the 88Boadrum experience. In the middle of the organized chaos was Boredoms’ leader Yamataka Eye, playing conductor and whaling on seven giant-sized guitar necks with what looked like a wizard’s staff. Eye played atop the unrelenting storm of kicks and snares with a bevy of different keyboards and effect peddles, adding melodic layers of noise to clattering beats which could probably be heard somewhere in Hermosa. The sea of drummers powered through a ballistic, non-stop, two-hour set of peaks and climaxes which went off more like a Fourth of Jul fireworks show – grand finale and all. The crowd of nearly 5,000 almost seemed hypnotized by the wall of noise as they sat and watched in a calm, trance-like state. The free event, sponsored by Nike, also marked the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Zach Hill (Hella, Team Sleep, Holy Smokes)
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