Friday, December 3, 2010

Dean & Britta: Rock to Warhol

Last night at the IMA's Toby Theatre, indie-art band Dean & Britta entertained a packed house with a very mellow soundtrack accompaniment to Andy Warhol’s "Screen Tests."

A dark room full of darker sounds: in the dimly lit venue the band delivered its own blend of Velvet Underground-meets-Edie Brickel downer rock ballads, while onto a suspended white screen a series of short, but equally bleak, 8-mm style black and white "mug shot" images flickered above. Warhol's famous Screen Tests -- no dialogue, just beautiful people making love to the lens -- were captured in the early 1960s at his Factory, and feature posing by a who's who of yesteryear's hip, and wanna-be scensters—from Nico to Edie Sedwick, Dennis Hopper to Lou Reed.

Our favorite performance: Lou Reed enjoying a bottle of Coca-Cola (captured here with iPhone). Things do go better with Coke. However, my thirsty gang stuck with Jack on the rocks, vodka rocks splash of cranberry (they were out of limes), and white wine and bottled water -- happy that we could bring our adult beverages into The Toby.



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