Negativland opened Deep Wireless 2005 on May 1st
Posted by: Nadene Theriault-Copeland on Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:34 am
It was Negativalnd’s first ever stage performance of their Over the Edge radio show. Normally heard in the wee hours of a Thursday night via internet from KPFA in San Francisco, listeners on eastern shores got a chance to hear it Sunday night prime-time as the performance was aired in its entirety on CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto. Audiences packed the Funky underground club at the Drake Hotel and comments are still resonating through the community two weeks after the show.
The show did not include any video or visual components, which is a notable fact for those that have attended other Negativland shows. But this was radio after all! Complimentary blindfolds were handed out to audience members at the Drake before the show, which was a nice way I thought of making a bridge between the live and radio audiences.
The radio show was titled “Its all in your head” and featured great sound bytes riffing on that name, including reiterations of their id cart “you’re listening to it’s all in your head FM.” The content of the show was essentially a documentary-style investigation of the question of religion and the place of God in contemporary society. The documentary thrust came from found spoken word fragments that Don Joyce juxtaposed against each other in a thoughtful and considered manner by manipulating five cart machines in the performance. Riding under the spoken narrative was a musical underscoring managed faithfully by Mark Hosler and Peter Conheim that moved from noisy beeps to electronica to movie themes and pop music grooves to support and propel the narrative forward. Interspersed were “on-mic” segments where the humour and whit of the band was at its best.
One of my favourite one-liners from the show was “Monotheism in Stereo.” And let’s not forget the fact that David Byrne from The Talking Heads was in the audience and of course recognized a little of his own material in the show - and he liked it!
Over The Edge on stage was a tremendous achievement - a 90 minute sound documentary without visuals presented in a club for two kinds of audience, live and radio. It provided much depth, savvy, and humour. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of a new chapter in Negativland’s long and illustrious journey.
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May 18th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
this sounds really interesting and quite unlike prairie home companion my favorite show, is it available online to listen to? how did the live audience react? were most people actively listening, i mean sitting still, quietly like a traditional audience, or did the club atmosphere change that
May 18th, 2005 at 6:09 pm
if I lived in Toronto I’d be a negativland regular. But what about folks who live lives where the closest thing that there is to such a club is a Carl’s Jr. on I-95. As a truckdriver radio art would be a welcome passsenger. come cloak time, while hauling my fat load in my Bulldog, this is the kind of sound i want my ears on. It’s a crying shame that there isn’t an easier way to hear this kind of radio. Guess until the CPB loosens its pursestrings it’s just me and my little CB
May 19th, 2005 at 12:04 am
Is there a URL for the KPFA feed?
May 19th, 2005 at 2:34 am
Hi Rudyard (and Turbo)
Sorry I had trouble signing in. The url is listed in this message
I quite like Prairie Home Companion as well but you are right when you say that it is quite unlike it. What Negativland did was manipulate live in front of an audience already existing music and spoken word. They augmented this with on-mic segments that were humorous and important I think in keeping the audience’s attention. Their Over the Edge Radio Show (hosted by Don Joyce, one of the members of Negativland) can be heard every Thursday at 12:00 AM (West Coast USA Time) except the first Thursday of every month. It can also be heard live-streamed from their web-site (http://www.Negativland.com/ote_live/index.html). Many of their shows are archived there as well.
To answer your other question regarding how the audience reacted, the Drake was packed to standing room only and everyone was actively listening some with their complimentary blind folds on but most watching and listening. Many were fortifyng their listening experience with spirits at the Bar but all had their ears open.
I felt as though I’d been through an enlightening once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was watching something that was being aired live on the radio and Negativland was providing a polished performance seemingly with no effort at all.
It was live radio the way I imagined it was 50 years ago (ie. the on-mic segments) and made all the more interesting by the underlying theme and content created by the collaging of music and spoken word.
Live radio is something we are striving to create each year with our Radio Theatre ensemble at the performances during the conference weekend at the end of May.
And Turbo, there are tons of radio stations out there that include radio art in their programming. Check out this link on our Deep Wireless web-site (http://www.soundtravels.ca/deepwireless/Radio.html) to find a few that have sent us their links. You can also catch some incredible programming live-streamed on the net from the UK and other places in Europe and North America that’s too far away to catch on your radio set.
Nadene