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Music: Negativland, Toronto 2005
Wed, 11 May 2005

Negativland's members are often described as pirates of the airwaves (though I would dub them more as folksingers of the era) due to their extensive use of 'found art' including tape loops from radio, television, theatre and .. peoples cell phone conversations - nothing is sacred in their travels to challenge audiences.

They've had a difficult and varied history, from their earlier days of parodying (and subsequently being sued by) U2 through parodying (and not being sued by) Pepsi to last nights more heady topics. Always entertaining, always funny, and endlessly sarcastic they're a show to behold where the watchers will be left humming catchy tunes for months to come.

Catching the show last night, I was moved by some of the more sweeping arrangements and shocked by some of the clips they'd found, amused and laughing aloud to the spoken word -- for a few brief moments all of us in the audience were comrades in this audio-essay discussing religion, the origin and existance of God, and examining the results and virtues around the world. Heady stuff - thought provoking, mesmorizing, and funny as heck.

One interesting thing to note .. the audience at a Negativland show is always highly mixed in age and style (a gallimaufrey if you will), from hottie little gothlings through to full-on artsy's (with a lot of product* in their hair) and housewives. Heck, pretty much everyone has a good time watching the performers twiddle with knobs, eject and insert various cassette reals and CD's, spin up LP's (yes, LP's!) and goof around with props.

Go, see, be angered and laugh.

* Thanks for the line, Traycer.

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