Bang on a Can All-Stars
Music by Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe
Directed by Michael Counts
The tank is full, the top is down, and three composers have their collective hand on the dial in this euphoric musical road trip celebrating 30 years of downtown music collective Bang on a Can. Returning to the collaborative spirit of the group’s origins, founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe flood the waves with an original mash-up of wind-in-your-hair tunes that capture the sublime exhilaration of freedom and possibility. Performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, with stunning scenic design by projection artist CandyStations (Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent) and stage direction by Michael Counts, Road Trip is a tribute to journeys of all sorts, and the people who make them. There is a road, but it is no simple highway.
Scenic design by CandyStations
Lighting design by Ben Stanton
Commissioned by BAM for the 2017 Next Wave Festival and by Stephen A. Block, Robert Braun & Joan Friedman, Leslie Lassiter, Raulee Marcus, Maria & Robert A. Skirnick, Jane and Richard Stewart, with additional support from Jerry Eberhardt and Phil Hettema, plus the many individual donors to the Bang on a Can 30th Anniversary “Road Trip” Fund.
Singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane chronicles his recent two-week train trip across the US in this hymn to the analog intimacy of American rail culture.
The inveterate experimentalist performs The Velvet Underground & Nico, the album that charted the course of underground music for decades to come, 50 years after its release.
The inveterate experimentalist celebrates 75 years, performing selections from his legendary career, including his landmark work with the Velvet Underground, the baroque pop perfection of Paris 1919, and beyond.