Octopus Project
The crazily exuberant, often inexplicable Octopus Project first dressed up two amps as very large white rabbits, complete with conical ears. The keyboardist came out dressed in a lime-green halter dress and a hairdo straight out of Mars Attacks and set her theremin on stage. The curtains behind the stage were pried open.
Projected on the screen: scenes straight out of RatherGood.com, kaleidoscopes, bunny rabbits, a plastic Jesus, 60s drumming videos, etc.
No, it doesn’t make any sense, but then again it doesn’t have to. Like the theremin itself, it don’t look like it should work, and yet it does, defying all expectation. Octopus Project defies everything with its crazy dance/feelgood/rock, and the members were all over the already spacious Highline stage like a bunch of rabbits on both acid and amphetamines.
The theremin is the most fascinating instrument to watch anyone play – the amount of concentration it seems to entail is nerve-wracking. She stood stock-still, shaking her fingers in front of the big metal poles, making notes out of the joints of her fingers. If anything it looked like she was pacifying a wild animal: don’t make any excess movements, don’t make eye contact, and if it gets too high pitched, pull back.
Islands
–David deLeon
