{"id":721,"date":"2008-03-23T21:14:29","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T01:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/23\/blue-man-group-the-complex-rock-tour-live\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T18:03:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T22:03:12","slug":"blue-man-group-the-complex-rock-tour-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/blue-man-group-the-complex-rock-tour-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Man Group: The Complex Rock Tour Live"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This blogger may have to burn his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/126261.The_Rock_Snob_s_Dictionary\">Rock Snob<\/a> card, for I just watched and enjoyed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueman.com\/\">Blue Man Group<\/a> concert film <em>The Complex Rock Tour Live<\/em>. I&#8217;d long assumed that the Blue Man Group&#8217;s seemingly permanent residency on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan was some kind of tourist trap like Mars 2112 or Jekyll and Hyde, but now I&#8217;m wishing I had looked closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For any others that may also have prematurely dismissed them, the Blue Man Group is equal parts performance art collective, percussion ensemble, and, well, <em>blue<\/em>. <em>The Complex Rock Tour<\/em> DVD captures the group live in 2002, with a show that is at once both an actual rock concert and an ironic commentary upon one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to fight the suspicion throughout that a blue-clad trio of catburglars had slipped into my apartment and raided my cd collection. As I watched, I started to compile in my head a list of artists that must have been influences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/EBNCONTROLSYSTEMS\">Emergency Broadcast Network<\/a>. EBN was a trailblazing multimedia performance group that fused Marshall McLuhan-esque media theory with techno, all in the style of a television news broadcast from hell. Their caustic and aggressive social commentary is a far cry from The Blue Man Group&#8217;s squeaky clean na\u00efvet\u00e9, but it&#8217;s hard not to watch footage of their live performances without seeing an ancestor of the <em>Complex Rock Tour<\/em>&#8216;s ironic infographics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Laurie Anderson&#8217;s <em>Home of the Brave<\/em> concert film (1986). All the ingredients are here, albeit in artier form: film, performance art, mime, masks, dance, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Peter Gabriel and Robert LePage&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/petergabriel.com\/release\/secret-world-live-dvdblu-ray\/\">Secret World Live<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/petergabriel.com\/release\/growing-up-live\/\">Growing Up Live<\/a> tours were as much theater as rock concerts, utilizing simple yet hugely symbolic shapes and props: a tree, an egg, the moon, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Talking Heads&#8217; <em>Stop Making Sense<\/em> concert film (1983), for all the same reasons as Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel above.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dgmlive.com\/king-crimson\">King Crimson<\/a>. Some of the Blue Man music bears more than a passing resemblance to the polyrhythmic tuned percussion King Crimson employed in the early 1980s with tracks like &#8220;Waiting Man&#8221; and &#8220;Neil and Jack and Me.&#8221; Not only that, one of the members of the Blue Man band can be spotted played the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stick.com\/\">Chapman Stick<\/a>, popularized by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tonylevin.com\/\">Tony Levin<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rock Snobs might be surprised to hear traces of even more modern music in the Blue Man Group repertoire. I caught snippets of the instrumental so-called &#8220;post-rock&#8221; of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unkle.com\">UNKLE<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bttls.com\">Battles<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.explosionsinthesky.com\/\">Explosions in the Sky<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And finally, the one influence the Blue Men actually namecheck with a (brief) cover version in their show is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clubdevo.com\/\">Devo<\/a>, but I don&#8217;t own any of their music! Maybe I should take this as a recommendation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As humorous and toe-tapping as <em>The Complex Rock Show<\/em> is, the Manhattan-based Blue Man Group end the proceedings with &#8220;Exhibit 13&#8221;, a haunting piece incorporating footage of actual World Trade Center debris that showered over Brooklyn only a few months prior. The piece is <a href=\"https:\/\/rendering.911memorial.org\/artists\/blue-man-group\/\">available online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This blogger may have to burn his Rock Snob card, for I just watched and enjoyed the Blue Man Group concert film The Complex Rock Tour Live. I&#8217;d long assumed that the Blue Man Group&#8217;s seemingly permanent residency on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan was some kind of tourist trap like Mars 2112 or Jekyll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,13],"tags":[1005,1279,357],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","category-music","tag-blue-man-group","tag-chapman-stick","tag-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/blue-man-group-complex-rock.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-bD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":637,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/u23d\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":0},"title":"U2 in a state called vertigo: U23D","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"U23D is actually a fairly traditional concert movie, a mostly straight-up filmed record of a representative show of a single tour. U2 had already produced one theatrical feature film about themselves (1988's Rattle and Hum), and released numerous productions on video and DVD before and since. So what could have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/u23d-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/u23d-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/u23d-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/u23d-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/u23d-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1849,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/mgmt-live-in-brooklyn-july-1-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":1},"title":"MGMT live in Brooklyn, July 1, 2009","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The electronic\/disco\/pop\/rock group MGMT has made a huge splash, earning spots on tours with no less than Paul McCartney and Beck. The wildly catchy \"Time to Pretend,\" \"Electric Feel,\" and \"Kids\" (the latter featuring a truly deranged music video) are not out of keeping with the rest of their repertoire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MGMT","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1446,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/sigur-ros-heima\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":2},"title":"Sigur R\u00f3s Comes Home to Iceland in Heima","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dean DeBlois' documentary film Heima (meaning \"coming home\" or \"at home\") follows the band Sigur R\u00f3s on their summer 2006 tour of their home country Iceland. The tour consisted of mostly free, unannounced concerts, and with the band in three basic configurations spanning the continuum of the purely acoustic to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sigur R\u00c3\u00b3s Heima","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/sigur-ros-heima-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":513,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/u2-zoo-tv-live-from-syndey\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":3},"title":"Everything You Know is Wrong: U2: Zoo TV Live From Syndey","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"If I could build a time machine to take me to see any band in history, it would be a trip to the early 90s to catch U2 at any point along their legendary Zoo TV tour. New to DVD, director David Mallet's Zoo TV: Live From Sydney documents the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"U2 Macphisto","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/u2-bono-macphisto.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/u2-bono-macphisto.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/u2-bono-macphisto.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/u2-bono-macphisto.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/u2-bono-macphisto.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1765,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/mogwai-live-at-the-music-hall-of-williamsburg-april-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":4},"title":"Mogwai live at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, April 2009","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Scottish instrumental rock outfit Mogwai earned their reputation in part for sheer volume, like My Bloody Valentine and The Who before them. Their music is also notable for exploring the kinds of extreme dynamics you usually only hear in electronica or progressive rock, wholly unlike the fatiguing constant loudness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mogwai","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":792,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-musical-box-highline-ballroom-new-york\/","url_meta":{"origin":721,"position":5},"title":"The Musical Box recreates Genesis&#8217; Black Show at Highline Ballroom, New York","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"May 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Musical Box is a Canadian group that stages elaborate recreations of entire concerts given by the English progressive rock band Genesis in the early 1970s. They perform closely-observed note-for-note cover versions of the original songs, in the original set list order, with full recreations of the set design, props,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Denis Gagn\u00e9 of The Musical Box","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/musical-box-flower.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8038,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/8038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}