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Wowwowpowpow. Tonight, 8/8/08, at 8:08pm, at the end of North 8th Street, the Brooklyn wing of the Boredoms’ cosmic 88BoaDrum event will flap. Basically, this is 88 drummers playing full drum kits in unison accompanied by some cruising Can/Neu-style synth and guitar drones. It’s kind of an improvement on Glenn Branca’s guitar orchestras, though as a guitar player with experience playing Branca’s music I know that’s sacrilege. Since it’s happening about 100 yards from my front door, I crashed the rehearsal today,
and this thing is fully awesome. In broad daylight, with no audience, under a blue sky, the Empire State Building looking like a giant metronome, the earth was rumbling, and 176 drumsticks flashed together under the noon day sun. And after seeing some of China’s Olympic opening spectacle earlier today, my appetite for a massive unison display of mechanoid human performance was satisfied. By way of juxtaposition, tomorrow I get to see Motörhead–a living monument in honor of individualism.

LINK / List of Drummers

Just for you, a photo of the spiffy Burzum shirt worn by a gay German dude getting off the subway in Brooklyn after the gay pride parade in New York last weekend. No, he had no idea who Varg Vikernes is — and yes, he assumed I was hitting on him. When Varg is out on weekend furloughs from prison in Norway, does he see this shirt in swanky boutique windows while out shopping for CDs? He was denied parole again recently, by the way. 

Check it out: the two heads on the right of this row of people being astonished by Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden belong to Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong. No joke. They made out throughout “Iron Maiden,” but never nude. If they thought the gossip rags would pick up on it…well, here you go! 

I bought tickets yesterday on the cheap, and I’m so glad I did. Iron Maiden are unique among major rock bands in that they’ve never forgotten why they’re big. They work the same vein that paid off for them first in 1983, only now in more elaborate ways. And after seeing Van Halen and the Who multiple times in the past couple years for various reasons, Iron Maiden comes off looking and sounding much more impressive. I was proud to be part of a crowd of newly-minted 12-year-old Maiden fans and their equally proud doddering old dads. Best off-Broadway spectacular ever! And fastest costume changes on the old Bruce.

There was a weird incident — midway through “Powerslave,” the sound cut out altogether. The band shrugged their shoulders, looked at each other, and then began kicking a soccer ball around. This went on for at least ten minutes, and believe me the audience barely minded seeing this improvised spectacle. At one point, Bruce picked up a sarcophagus and used it to beat back the soccer ball. Funny stuff. When the power came on, he surprised me by blaming Sharon Osbourne by name in front of the massive crowd, saying she was getting her revenge and that the “wicked witch of west rides again.” Is that British humor, or does he have reason to think Sharon Osbourne still reaching out from afar fucking with Iron Maiden shows? 

I’m putting together a D-beat episode of my Bloody Roots metal history show for Sirius, and simultaneously we’re approaching the anniversary of the booze and pills overdose death of Disclose frontman/guitarist Kawakami. Here’s what his heavily-branded gravestone looks like. I think the message of the Super Saddam Bros. doll is to enjoy life, enjoy Discharge, embrace some rules and throw others down the nearest green pipe.