Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

The Swedish House Mafia at Barclays Center: "walloping four-on-the-floor... pumping bass riffs... benign bombast" (but not so benign for neighbors)

From a review in today's New York Times of the Swedish House Mafia concert at the Barclays Center two nights ago, Last Dances, Celebrating Last Tour:
For about two hours, the band members basked in screams and shouts of recognition, pumped their arms in the air, stood silhouetted against the lights of their multistory video screens and, now and then, actually touched their sound equipment. (Every so often, Axwell also took up drumsticks and pounded along with the programmed beat.)

For the audience it was a night to dance nonstop; to sing along to big-beat anthems of sorrows overcome...

Its rhythmic foundation is a walloping four-on-the-floor, rarely deviating very far from 128 beats per minute. It supports pumping bass riffs and a boundless supply of perky, one-bar keyboard lines, in rounded synthetic tones.

It’s monumental, happy music, benign bombast, as positive as it is unsubtle.
The "benign bombast" also translates into leaking bass from the arena, as detailed in noise complaints filed on Atlantic Yards Watch.

Last night, I walked outside the arena at Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street, then walked down the long block of Pacific to Carlton Avenue. I could still hear/feel the rumble. And, a resident told me, it was not nearly as intrusive as it had been the two previous nights.

Let's see if any new fines are pending.

Comments