Guerrilla gig

Guerrilla gigging is a type of concert performed in a non-traditional setting or arranged in an unusual fashion. It became associated with punk rock, indie rock and noise rock bands in Britain and the United States during the early to mid 2000s. Bands who perform at such events are sometimes referred to as "guerrilla rockers".

There are two major elementsFact|date=March 2007 that characterise a guerrilla gig. The first is similar in concept to a flash mob, and involves a band or artist performing in an unexpected, sometimes unannounced, setting not designed to accommodate live music, such as on a bus or subway train, parking lot, or building lobby. The second characteristic involves their being arranged very quickly and without the typical processes of publicity or advance ticket sales. They are usually announced through various internet message boards as well as by text messages and sometimes last-minute flyers.

It is often viewed as an example of punk rock's idealistic "do it yourself" philosophy (which aimed to achieve underground artistic success without commercialisation by avoiding mainstream corporate record labels) being applied via modern communications technology, in a way which would not have been possible before the advent of the internet. The popularity of online forums and social-networking sites has made it possible for bands to immediately disseminate news of a gig to thousands of people only hours before a performance, at minimal cost, and bypassing the traditional print and radio-based methods of publicising concerts.

The earliest known example of a guerrilla gig was on January 30, 1969, when The Beatles played a gig entirely unannounced on the roof of Apple Studios at Savile Row, London. They performed several takes of their newest songs (which would appear on the album "Let It Be" as the passers-by on the street looked up in confusion. After the third take of "Get Back", they were kicked off by the police due to noise complaints.

Development in Britain

A few British bands became known for "guerrilla gigging" in the early 2000s. The technique first developed there because the concentrated social and geographical nature of the London music scene made it possible to generate a favourable "buzz" and ensure attendance at the events. The Libertines were among the first to use internet technology to accomplish this, often announcing a gig a few hours before the show by providing cryptic instructions for fans to meet at a given place to await an escort to a flat, where the admission price would be collected and the concert would take place in a living room or basement. The Others provide another example, having performed brief shows in tube trains (subways) on the London Underground for mixed groups of fans and startled passengers. In another famous instance, singer Badly Drawn Boy earned £4.60 from passersby while busking outside London's Waterloo Station for a day in 2003, going largely unrecognized by the public.

The United States

Rhode Island noise rock bands such as Lightning Bolt, and other American bands, have embraced this new extreme DIY culture.Many bands have embraced this by going down the streets on wagon hitches such as the Dropkick Murphys and AC/DC. In the mid-to-late 80's Rodent Kontrol, a punk band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, gained local notoriety for their guerilla gigs in and around downtown Ann Arbor and on the University of Michigan campus. [www.rodentkontrol.org] Some of these shows terminated in the band's ejection from the unauthorized venues by police or security guards.

ee also

*Guerrilla punk
*DIY ethic
*Punk ideology
*Basement show

References