tonyballinger.com

For twenty years I’ve been interested in Brian Eno and have wanted to see him live in concert. I suppose it began when my dad played Eno/Byrne’s “The Jezebel Spirit” for me as a kid. Years later after having some CDs stolen in a break-in, I had the opportunity to spend about $500 of insurance money on CDs in one afternoon. Curious about his name from my childhood, I picked up Eno’s albums “Nerve Net” and “The Shutov Assembly”. And I haven’t been quite the same since. Unfortunately, Eno’s distaste for performing live is only exceeded by his distaste for performing live in North America.

In 1998, he played a set with Slop Shop in Germany. In 2001, he did a short world tour for his album “Drawn from Life” which included only locations he wanted to visit (the US didn’t make the cut). In 2005 he played the “Stop the War” benefit concert, backing the Rachid Taha Band on keyboards and playing a handful of songs with Nitin Sawhney. In 2006, he played a few new pieces as part of the Bath International Music Festival.

What’s different this year is that now I have a passport, which is immensely liberating. If going to Spain twice for the Mobile World Congress has taught me anything it’s this: you don’t need much to travel globally. You need a passport, a credit card, an iPhone and an international calling plan. That’s about it. Bring a Snickers bar just in case and a pair of sunglasses.

What’s also unique about Eno’s performance this year is that it isn’t a couple of songs on stage. Eno is taking part in a three-part concert performance he’s calling “Pure Scenius” with collaborators Karl Hyde (from Underworld), guitarist Leo Abrahams, synthesist Jon Hopkins and Australia’s The Necks. Altogether it will be four and half hours of music to bring an end to the Luminous Festival he’s curating. After twenty years collecting Eno’s music and visiting his art installations and speaking engagements in the US, I can’t hardly believe I’m finally going to see him play live.

Oh, and I’ll of course be posting live from the trip via Twitter and TwitPic. =)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Concerts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.