Scratchband (1996). John Adams /aws: part 3 of 8/

After shopping and idling on Sunday, it was time for watching...

After reading some of the recent hype for Alarm Will Sound, I had high expectations on how they presented the music of John Adams. And overall, it was fun and spirited.

My first thought upon seeing the group was, where are the strings? Oh, this piece is for an electrified band. Got it.

The body language of the group clearly indicated a sense of enjoyment of the music. And get down and get funky, bass clarinetist and oboist!; Isn't oboe hard to play standing up? At least in a later piece, the contrabassoonist was sitting. I might also put the drummer on risers. After all, that's what they would have done to show off John Bonham, Matt Cameron or Keith Moon. Of course, that might lead to fog machines and video screens and...

See SFMike's censored photos of the concert for a better look.

Finally, this boomer would like to see Adams compose more for electric guitar...