Accidental Video From Music Therapy Benefit Concert

Accidental Video From Music Therapy Fundraiser

Beasties, Last Night

A lil' dizzying, accidental video...

Benefit shows can draw mixed crowds, as the Beasties Boys' one-off show at Terminal 5 made manifest last night. At $75 a ticket -- even if it's for the sublimely important and dizzyingly far-reaching cause of music therapy -- you're going to draw a dichotomized grouping of connected donors who are there for the cause, and the faithful masses, a small few of whom were -- at least last night -- acting like beer-swilling meatheads with that "here we are now entertain us" attitude that could put a rock star off the quest of building an army. As we were escorted to the pit, a light bump into one dude (the place was at capacity) netted an impatient rejoinder...and not long after we made it through to get to our spot in the pit, a fight broke out in that same section we'd just come through. Suffice to say we walked out in another direction...

Thankfully, this was not typical of the entire crowd and the majority of fans more than compensated; screaming, moving, holding up cameras and cellphones set to video. We didn't get to see one of the evening's key moments -- but thankfully we heard it as we waited to be escorted in -- delivered by a gentleman who'd endured amputation and who wailed on "I Can See Clearly Now," accompanied by a guitar-strumming Moby, who served as the evening's host, and is on the board of directors for the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. We were not allowed to videotape, so we borrowed a digital camera which, unbeknownst to us, had been preset to video, hence these smashed-together effects-masked what-the-hell four minutes of Beastly chaos (which we kinda see as maybe faintly evoking with visual metaphor, the sense of disorder plaguing a fractured mind dealing with, say Alzheimner's + we straight copied an old video + we thought we were raking still images) which we'll probably have to take down soon.

At the end of the day, this is an effort which should really be happening at even more hospitals and clinics than it is already, given how far music therapy has gone toward mainstream acceptance.

As they note on their website with phrasings that are equal parts zen koans and therapeutic challenges: "What if you couldn't walk but could dance with grace and ease to music you love? What if you couldn't remember a loved one's name but could hum your favorite tune?"

Bethabe.org

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music
• therapy
• beastie
• boys