(I've been painting to their music at home, and blogging about it - see previous posts - but going from that to what we ended up with on stage, well, it wasn't exactly obvious! Or, as various people in the audience said: "You're gonna do WHAT???")
HS Painter: Live Painting on the 15th! @audiofeel 're:crowdpainting' (lol) maybe if enough people wear white cheap t-shirts/meedoen #dvers
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| David, Eelco and Marcel. Soundcheck. |
It's one thing to have a "wouldn't it be funny/weird/cool/different" twitter idea-pingpong, it's something else to actually DO it.
Do what? We didn't really know for sure until 3 hours before the live gig! And we didn't really know whether it was going to work until the performance itself. (The back-up plan consisted of David's hat and my acrylic paints). One thing we did know for sure, the stage was WAY too small for a canvas...
So, we came up with something better, and I have to say, the whole thing worked seamlessly. If you ever need someone to give an advanced focus and concentration workshop, get David. He didn't flinch. ("Won't you be very distracted???" I'd asked him beforehand. "Nah"...he was "looking forward to the challenge". Ok then...)
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| 30 minutes of live music and paiting at cafe Der Gulden Haen in Sittard ...and... we're off! |
The paint is water-based body paint. The same stuff you'd use for painting clown faces etc, although, I probably used a better quality paint than the local elementary school would...
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| Rodger (left), me (middle), David (front), Eelco (back) |
Apparently, David didn't even notice that he was being painted half of the time (so I heard afterwards). Sure, he whacked away my brush a few times mid-song with some unexpected hand-waving... and I think I caught him once or twice in an away-from-that-brush reflex... --->
But apart from that, easy as a canvas. Ok, well, moving canvas that is. Many a line ended up being different than I had in mind due to a sudden move...
(I love improv!)
Did I mention that the surround-sound was brilliant? I had the best "seat" for sure!
Also, hats off to Rodger (left, above pic) for swinging his guitar out of the way like a saloon door whenever I needed to pass mid-song. At some point I figured out a way to dab my brush in fresh paint located off-stage while standing on stage, but nevertheless, I needed to get on and off quite frequently. He didn't miss a single note.
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| Erich (back left), David, Eelco, me, Marcel |
David had said beforehand that he wanted his WHOLE upper body painted...So, after I ran out of space on his arms and back, the chest it was...-->I was asked by someone in the audience whether I "always do this". Ha! Seriously though, wouldn't it be awesome to have a whole troupe of action-painters, painting bands while they're playing live? It would definitely highlight that art is an experience. Take it out of the studio, make it off-the-wall.
Besides, I still owe Erich a monkey on his forehead.
For a picture of David's painted back click here.
thanks to Rene from www.renebradwolff.nl for the photos!
Audiofeel: www.audiofeel.nl is David Plantaz (voice, guitar), Rodger Plantaz (guitar), Erich Mestriner (keys), Marcel Schurer (bass), Eelco Dautzenberg (drums)
<--- note the 'abdominal art'...it was tricky to execute!
If you missed the earlier posts, click here for how the audiofeel-painting started in the first place!
Pictures taken at cafe Der Gulden Haen, 15th October 2011. Festival D-vers, Sittard, Netherlands.
