Baltimore Round Robin in Boston: Craziest show ever?
The last time Dan Deacon came to MassArt, it looked like this.
Dan Shea's had this one on his calendar for a while, but we didn't quite understand the gravity of the situation until we got a press release explaining exactly what DAN DEACON has planned for the "Baltimore Round Robin" tour, which kicks off at Boston's MassArt in October. It's not simply that Deacon has assembled a lineup of more than 20 of Baltimore's finest bands and multimedia artists to perform over the course of two nights -- from Beach House and Jana Hunter to the Deathset and of course Deacon his own bad self. Sure, the content is fantastic. But the format is some waaaaaaay next-level shit. We'll let them explain it, because you'd never believe it coming from us:
The format of the show is as follows:
-All the bands set up at the same time along the perimeter of the room with the audience in the center
-Each band does one song per round, no breaks, back to back to back etc., until the show is completed
-There is no headliner or opener, no front row or back of the room
So basically this is sort of like a Lightning Bolt show times a gazillion. Bring dramamine!
Since the format precludes renting a backline -- which is what you'd normally think to do if you had that many bands coming in from out of town -- we instantly began trying to imagine how much gear this show requires, and how the hell they're gonna get it here. But before we could begin calculating carbon-offsets, we got to this part: "The 60+ people [are] driving around by only veggie powered vehicles in a community on wheels." Bring fry grease!
Here's the full lineup for the Boston shows (subject to change, and we'd be astonished if it didn't):
October 2 at MassArt: Baltimore Round Robin [Eyes Night: folk, noise, theatrics, improvisation]
Beach House
Creepers
Ed Schrader
Jana Hunter
Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez
Lexie Mountain Boys
Nautical Almanac
Santa Dads
Teeth Mountain
WZT Hearts
October 3 at MassArt: Baltimore Round Robin [Feet Night: electronic, punk, hardcore, dance, and rocknroll]
Adventure
Blood Baby
Dan Deacon
The Deathset
DJ Dog Dick
Double Dagger
Future Islands
Height
Lizz King
Nuclear Power Pants
Smarthgrowth
Video Hippos