Boredoms “Jungle Taitei”

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Yes, I saw my first Boredoms show only three years ago when I was 19. Yes, last year I went to New York to see the 77 Drum performance (an 85 minute Boredoms/Voordoms set that included 73 extra drummers all led and conducted by Yamatsuka EYE).  And yes, last night I did it again at the Henry Fonda. There were people there who had also been to the two previous shows I attended, and this brings up the question: Why? Well, because. Because the Boredoms have been a band for 20+ years, because Yamatsuka EYE is my dad’s age (I realize my dad is only 47 and that some of the L.A. RECORD readership is in that same age range, but my dad works for Boeing and doesn’t play a seven necked guitar or have dreadlocks) and most importantly because they possess the rare ability to fuse so many things together so seamlessly—it comes off as the most effortless thing you’ve ever seen. Last night’s set was similar to my two previous Boredoms experiences: three full drumkits, EYE jumping around and conducting with a theramin-like wand of some kind and CDJ decks running everything from techno to choir vocals to drum rhythms.  They were unrelenting for over an hour, did an encore and then left the stage, everyone still in awe at what they’d seen for the first time or third or fifth.

— Nate Harrington