Regular listeners to Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly should remember the mostly-instrumental gorgeousness of Kevin Micka’s Animal Hospital song “. . . And Ever” from Volume 17. Animal Hospital has always been a solo project, its many layers of rhythm and melody and texture created live by Kevin as he jumps back and forth from instrument to instrument, adding and subtracting loops like he’s competing in the musical version of Top Chef. I’ve seen it live, and it was truly wonderful to behold. His album Memory, from which “. . . And Ever” is taken, is a standby for me.
Seeing him perform these pieces solo was impressive enough, but Kevin has decided to raise the bar, by assembling a thirty-person ensemble to play the music from Memory live, reproducing live – and in surround-sound, positioned in a circle around the audience – the many loops and layers Kevin creates on his own with the help of modern technology. This group will perform two concerts this weekend, one in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and one in Boston, at my alma mater, MassArt. It’s been a while since I wished I were on the East Coast for any particular reason, but goddamn I really wish I could be at either of these shows. If you’re anywhere remotely in driving distance, I strongly recommend you go and send me a full report.
If, like me, you’re a sucker and can’t go, just listen and weep: