Drop Beats Not Bombs

The Tank: 45 W. St., Hell’s Kitchen

Bobby Previte and Benton-C Bainbridge

The second set at The Tank, with the shape-shifting percussionist Bobby Previte and visuals by Benton-C Bainbridge was energy fused with enough anarchy/coherency that it started to make sense by the time it ended.  While in most cases it would be easy to pin the politics (the “message”) on the one in control of the visual cues (that is, the mosque moving back and forth across the bottom of the screen, shooting down Jesus-fish space invaders) Previte’s pounding, terrifying electronic drums shocked and awed as much as Bainbridge’s epileptic flashes across the screen.  Add to that the occasional W. sample and you have a full-on polemic.  But it would only be a polemic, after all, if it weren’t done so well; if the electronic chaos hadn’t made me think of 80s Berlin long before W. came into the picture, I don’t know that it would have had the same effect.  The strategy: go for the jugular, then let us know you don’t like U.S. foreign policy.  Aside: one of Previte’s long-running bands, Bobby Previte’s Coalition of the Willing, is on my must-see list.

(left to right) Bobby Previte, W., Benton-C Bainbridge's Son, Benton-C Bainbridge