11.28.11: culture blotter {mgmt and maurizio cattelan @ the guggenheim}

we had every reason - okay, many reasons - to imagine that the tail end of our annual flurry of autumn concerts would be a spectacular, dragon-kite tail end. a stegosaurus tail end! our friend lesley spent a good deal of our pre-show mexican food and margaritas (also auspicious!) telling us about how amon tobin at the brooklyn masonic temple had flipped up the top of her head, scooped out her brains, and speckled the tri-state area with them; maybe this show (precious alt-electronic wesleyan hipsters playing music surrounded and inspired by "all," a massive, 128-piece, museum-wide mobile which serves as a retrospective of italian artist maurizio cattelan's career) would be like that show (we saw matthew barney's cremaster installations at the guggenheim a decade ago, and they had that sort of promise)!

pope, concertgoers @ guggenheim

guggenheim roof

ye photogs

joe at the guggenheim

upstairs restroom, guggenheim, during the mgmt show

death from above, mgmt @ guggenheim

the cattelan pieces were interesting if not always excellent, but seeing them in a single (and singular) place was unexpectedly moving. the peoplewatching, as one would imagine, was fantastic; i'd like to meet the person who kissed the wall in the bathroom upstairs, and perhaps introduce them to the twelve-year-old mgmt superfan who tried to chat me up at the end of the show. mgmt...i'll need to see again: i have to believe they're capable of more than that show, and on that note, i might want to kick them in the shins. i remain enthusiastic about nights of music at museums, particularly when i know i have a brand-new skeleton suit waiting for me at home. maximalism, internets! it keeps us on our toes.

6 comments:

Rob S. Parham said...

Wait, did MGMT suck or a show at the Gugg? I just think the Gugg kind of sucks. I was expecting so much more awesomeness. I don't want MGMT to suck live, but maybe they do too. did the 12 year old get your digits?

kidchamp said...

the mgmt show at the gugg sucked; the "inspired-by" all-instrumental stuff they played was boring to begin with, and made worse by the museum's bad acoustics. i'm willing to believe they could be good, with better material at a better venue. twelvie struck out, poor guy, even after claiming he was the band's pot hookup.

anonymous said...

you didn't tell me the show was BASED ON A MOBILE?! wtf.

also: did you even bother to get high pre-show??

anonymous said...

here's a fucking MGMT show for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTiFNQBRwwU

kidchamp said...

have we never talked about how much i hate pot? i hate pot. 

kidchamp said...

so to review for the folks at home, you're...defending them with a talking heads cover? oh, cookies.