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TV On The Radio Played A Movie Theater, Want To Do It Again
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 8, 2011
Modified Sep 8, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 8, 2011
Modified Sep 8, 2011
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They've played billboards and swimming pools, so it's no shock to see Williamsburg indie mascots TV on the Radio jamming in a movie theater. The full band wasn't in the house, but last night frontmen Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone shuffled into the Nitehawk Cinema with a few other musicians to play an eccentric 20 minutes of "distracting music," as Adebimpe described it.
The evening was the first time Nitehawk, the void-filling first-run art house theater on Metropolitan Avenue, has hosted live music (we're told the Beastie Boys had considering doing a live show/album release there, but the venue wasn't ready yet). And while there were some technical sound glitches, it somehow worked—the music, while far-out and ambient, was not uninteresting, and the "jazz odyssey" was paired well with video Adebimpe shot during the band's summer tour. The mini-set was preceded by a screening of the full-length "film version" of their new album Nine Types Of Light—which hasn't been released on DVD because, as Malone explained, their label told them "you can't farm people's info with a DVD."
So you can get "farmed" and watch the whole thing for free here. It's a fun trip, and works as both an unconnected series of music videos and a weirdly cohesive psychedelic feature. During a post-screening Q&A, Adebimpe, who is also an animator, explained that he worked closely with the directors of the different segments, but gave them room to add their own ideas. (The most fascinating, perhaps, is the animated video for "Repetition," a journey under and through a freakishly populated consumer city not unlike our own.) Adebimpe also directed a couple of the pieces himself, and wrote some of the mock-deep Q&As with a group of actors young and old, which are used for a series of interstitial videos. Adebimpe also said he hopes to get TV on the Radio to play live along with the movie at some point in the near future.
The film ends with a completely improvised video of the band meeting in a diner, one year after a fictional break up. Gerard Smith, who died of lung cancer soon after the album's release, eerily tells his former bandmates he's working in the diner, while guitarist/producer Dave Sitek explains he's working hard on an ice-capade show called "Bush Administration on Ice." Kyp Malone, meanwhile, has moved into a LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) community centered around the Peanuts comic strip. Out in California, drummer Jaleel Bunton has started a karate dojo, and Adebimpe says he's acting; the scene segues into a hilarious music video in which he stars as a dancing sensitive Prince-esque thespian.
TV on the Radio plays tonight at The Williamsburg Waterfront; Nitehawk Cinema is currently screening Another Earth, The Future, and The Guard—it's a great place, and you can eat well before (and during) the movie off chef Sol Bolton's refined comfort food menu.
Tagged
movie
nine types of light
nitehawk
tv on the radio
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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