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The Broadway Bomb: 200 skateboarders have a death wish on Saturday
Published on 10/10/08
Published on 10/9/08
Video
Knitting Factory; Fri, May 16–18
Any music festival, no matter how contrarian in spirit, is likely to garner a bit of respectability by its fifth year. So it’s noteworthy that the No Fun Fest, whose regular performers have fled downtown Manhattan en masse for Brooklyn over the past decade, has moved from Red Hook to the Knitting Factory. Dashing around the Knit to see the 50-plus noise and related acts will only enhance the festival’s bursting-at-the-seams quality.
Organized by the globe-trotting musician Carlos Giffoni, No Fun could be said to include anyone who ever had their thinking permanently altered by Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. Members of Sonic Youth, in various configurations, provide a bit of star power and continue to be intrinsic to a scene that owes much to their inspiration. Predating them (and everyone else on the bill), ’60s minimalist pioneer Tony Conrad will appear in a duo with the underrated and determinedly nondigital electronicist M.V. Carbon. The weekend also provides rare opportunities to see German electronic-music titans Cluster (Saturday) and antimusic legends from L.A. the Haters (Sunday), plus tons of younger ensembles that are hugely influential in this world (you’ve never heard of Hair Police?).
When this many like-minded performers—especially musicians who’ve been able to admire each other only from afar—gather in one place, a unique energy and momentum accumulate around them. That plus the enthusiasm of the serious fans who’ll try to catch every single ear-challenging performance should provide a memorable experience even for the merely curious.
