88boadrum is a faux-phenomenon. On Friday, Aug 8, 88 drummers collected themselves at the Williamsburg waterfront and, in dull synchronicity, thwacked away at their drums, while Brooklyn locals Gang Gang Dance orchestrated. The same event was orchestrated on the West Coast, except with the Japanese group Boredoms at the La Brea Tar Pits in L.A. At 8:08pm (in their respective time zones), the bands played for 88 minutes, while I concluded 88 times that corporate-sponsored, gimmicky events are a risky thing.

Though the idea seemed clever, the execution was poor, and the artistic director Hisham Bharoocha, as well as the orchestrating band Boredoms (whose bandleader Eye wrote the composition played at both events), did not work very hard. Instead of letting the collective and individual sounds of the 88 drummers create a soundscape on Manhattan’s cityscape, they alternated between free form playing, near silence, and synchronized rhythms.  Only a total of eight to twelve rhythmic changes were made throughout the piece, all gradually, a few drummers at a time, and it ended feeling more like an outdoor rave than a supposed sound experiment.  

The communal feeling that could have emerged from the drummers’ individual involvement and a more rigorous orchestration was lost under the commanding sound of a synthesizer blasted from huge speakers. All those feet and hands became a backbeat to the composition, which had no merit on its own.

Whether it was the case or not, I felt the presence of the event’s sponsor Nike. I am guessing they encouraged a spectacle more than a real sound experiment, and that’s what they got. Now, I am not saying all corporate sponsored events are bad, but just be careful next time you decide to go to one. Also, unless they get their act together (literally), do not go to next year’s 99boadrum (if there is one).

-Josh Fishbein