72
“Their music hit me like a lightning forgotten dreams of mad dance-floors
bolt,” I said, almost wincing as the and astral journeys.
words slipped out. It all began when I was dj’ing for
Tasteless, I thought to myself, a friend’s birthday. I took a break after
tasteless! Although the kid I was playing Can’s “Swansong” and when
talking to probably wouldn’t know why. I came back in, my housemate Gary
There I was, waiting in queue, in a dark was on the decks with an intriguing and
downtown LA alley, outside the Smell, novel noise. I asked what it was, he
a punk dive, with a bunch of teen to said ‘Gang Gang Dance’. He saw them
20-something hipsters trying to explain play back East. “They were so good it
why a graying post-raver/post-Burner scared me.”
has joined them for a last-minute secret
gig by the band Gang Gang Dance.
* * *
They said that
Tasteless, because what I chose
Gang Gang Dance evolved their
for a metaphor in fact had happened
unclassifiable sound out of hundreds
Nathan had
to Nathan Maddox, early member of
of noise jams. From that early chaos,
‘Gang Gang Dance’.
shards of meaning and magic grew.
Nathan was killed by lightning. On a
Shards they’ve woven into narratives of
always wanted
NY Chinatown rooftop in 2002.
a kind, stories of unwordable knowings.
According to his band mates and
Five hours later, emerging from the
to be struck by
girlfriend, he wanted to see the storm,
Smell after a blinding performance, I
how beautiful it was and dance in the
fantasize about dumping my job and
lightning. And
rain. They said that Nathan had always
wanted to be struck by lightning. And
he got his wish,
he got his wish, at the age of 25. Too
romantic to be true? But that’s what
they claim. And I believe them. Because
at the age of 25.
the proof is in their music - it bears
the stamp of melded joy and pain, the
original meaning of the word ecstasy.
But I guess you can’t hold the
lovesick to standards of good taste.
Everyone’s had that experience of
meeting someone for the first time
and recognizing them, and sometimes
falling for them. Haven’t they?
That’s how I encountered ‘Gang
Gang Dance’. Like a feeling from
inside my own skin, the audio track of
avantoure
|
homo ludens
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