BAND
Description of Fluc Wanne Show
For their first show at Fluc Wanne on Wednesday 30 June 2010, BAND made seven new works that responded to and intervened into the particularity of the underground concert space. Leading up to the show BAND also produced a city-wide marketing campaign.
Weekly before the show, BAND distributed colourful screen printed posters. The posters were made in four batches which progressively built up various combinations of the letters B, A, N and D in the colours Cyan, Yellow and Magenta. Also during the run up to the show members of BAND wore a different white t-shirt everyday, with the single letter B, A, N, or D on the back.
At Fluc Wanne the initial element the audience encountered was BAND’s first audio track which was played in the entrance, thereby folding the group’s colourful poster campaign seamlessly into the event itself.
The animation titled ‘THIS IS THE WRONG TIME AND PLACE TO PLAY IN A LOW-KEY’ rolled through on continuous loop at the back of the dance floor and opposite to the stage area. On the stage itself, the audience was left with a lifeless display of four microphones and a single monitor. As the audience waited for BAND to begin, a light show took place on the dance floor where spots of RGB light were combined in the form of Venn Diagrams.
A further element to this setting was a t-shirt stand where fans could buy their own BAND shirt. Those passing by Fluc outside, could look down on this scene through a large window above. On this window was the phrase ‘I wish I was part of that collective making those t-shirts’ printed in black vinyl.
The show took place backstage and was presented via a live feed to the monitor onstage. BAND appeared at 11pm backstage, the members were at various stages of getting ready for their gig but all of them wore individually styled costumes.
A performance lasting 34 minutes took place where the members of BAND discussed various aspects of their collectivity, from the repercussions on the group of individual tardiness, to problems with the selection of food available backstage.
The entire script for the dialogue was composed of quotes, taken from numerous sources including the documentary film ‘Metallica: Some Kind of Monsters’ (2004); General Idea’s FILE Megazine ‘Glamour Issue’ Vol. 3, #1 (1975); ‘Visual Grammar’ Christian Leborg (2004); ‘The presentation of self in everyday life’ Erving Goffman (1959) and BAND’s own meeting minutes, mobile texts and e-mails.
BAND‘s performance ended as they descended the stairs leading from the backstage area with the song ‘One Chord Wonders’ by The Adverts blaring out. The group walked straight past the stage towards the bar where they got a beer and joined the audience on the dance floor.
Review 'The Band Members and The Band' by Martin Beck