The Best of Take-Away Shows
Take-Away Shows have been slowly gaining popularity across the net and I’ve seen them showing up on more and more music blogs lately. I ran across Take-Away Shows a couple of years ago when trying to find out more about Okkervill River and I continue to look forward to every new show.
The concept is simple but I can’t say it any better than they do on their own website;
“Every week, we invite an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session. Of course, what makes the beauty of it is all the little incidents, hesitations, and crazy stuff happening unexpectingly. Besides, we do not edit the videos so they look perfectly flawless, instead we keep the raw sound of the surroundings. Our goal is to try and capture instants, film the music just like it happens, without preparation, without tricks. Spontaneity is the keyword.”
Lately more mainstream bands (Bloc Party, Sigur Ros…) have been making appearances on the shows. While some may miss the indie focus, I’m excited to see a wide range of bands opening up to the raw acoustic on the street feel of Take-Away Shows. Watching the shows you can feel that these artists are opening themsleves up by performing often with no backup, improvised instrumentation and in unplanned public places around Paris, New York and a few other locations around the world.
The exhibitionism and vulnerability of these recordings is consuming and a great way to be introduced to new artists or to see those you thought you knew in a whole new light. Below are my Top 5 Take-Away Shows but I suggest you visit the website and browse through some of the previous recordings. The easiest way to keep up is tosubscibe to their podcast. Enjoy!
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