MUSIC
BY ALEX NOTMAN
MEDIUM TROY AND
BOHEMIAN DUB
ORCHESTRA PLAY A
SOLDOUT SHOW AT
MCDONALD THEATRE
NOV. 1, 2013
BALLS OUT
Medium Troy leads more than 100 artists
for the Bohemian Dub Ball
PHOTO BY ROB SYDOR • ROBSYDOR.COM
O
nce upon a time, orchestra halls were raucous
places, bursting with chatty patrons who were
eager to applaud — dare I say it — during a
movement. Composers, such as Mozart and
Brahms, saw an engaged, reactive audience as a
sign of respect. Not until the 20th century did “concert
etiquette” develop and audiences became staid, passive
observers waiting to clap on cue.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, it’s important for you
to know that the people behind the Bohemian Dub Ball
May 10 at the Hult Center are looking for an audience with
that pre-20th-century zing; they want the crowd to dance,
sing and surrender themselves to the arts. Organized by the
Community Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA) and
the arts umbrella group Bohemian Dub (electronic band
Medium Troy and the Bohemian Dub Orchestra), the ball
pairs the UO-based art collective Harmonic Laboratory,
local dance troupes, musicians and artists with national
acts RJD2, Devin the Dude and Eskmo.
The ball’s theme, a meditation on duality — modernism
and classicism, acoustic and analog, organic and tech,
town and gown — requires the audience become part of
the tableau by coming in costumes inspired by the past and
future.
Medium Troy’s JoJo Ferreira, the event’s organizer-in-
chief, has experience putting on ambitious multi-
disciplinary arts events; last November, Medium Troy
played a sold-out show with the 30-plus-piece Bohemian
Dub Orchestra at the McDonald, and in January the band
performed as part of Harmonic Lab’s stunning (sub)Urban
Projections event in the Hult lobby. The ball, however, is
by far Ferreira’s biggest project yet with more than 100
participating artists and musicians pulled from the UO,
LCC, the city of Eugene and as far-reaching as Philly
(RJD2) and Poland (Etam Cru artist Sainer provided the
poster art).
Ferreira says he hopes the Dub Ball becomes an annual
art meet-up “that marries popular concert art — like what
we do, rock-band stuff, electronica — with fine arts.”
The fine arts are where Harmonic Labs comes in. Brad
Garner, UO dance professor and part of the Harmonic Lab
team, recruited contemporary ballet dancers from the UO
like Katie Scherman and breakdancers from local groups
like the Space Invaders to dance to a Chopin piece laced
with glitch hop, a subgenre of electronic music.
“There’s a guy doing locking right behind Katie,”
Garner says. “To see someone locking to Chopin — it just
really messes with your perspective. It’s very beautiful.”
Calyn Kelly, program coordinator for the CCPA
(associated with the WOW Hall), helped bring in electronic
music producers RJD2 (perhaps whose most widely
known piece is the Mad Men theme) and Eskmo, as well
as hip-hop artist Devin the Dude.
“I’ve been with the CCPA in one way or another for
almost 10 years and in that time we’ve never tried to do an
event that’s incorporated this many different groups or
people or artists,” Kelly says. “That’s exciting for us.”
Medium Troy, RJD2 and Devin the Dude will be backed
by an orchestra, conducted by Harmonic Lab composer
Jeremy Schropp, of about 40 musicians and Eskmo will be
perform alongside a 10-piece ensemble, with choreographed
dance sets by Broadway Burlesque Revue, Work Dance
Company, Red Moon Rising, Aerial Silks and more
sprinkled throughout. Adding to the artscape, UO prof and
video artist John Park will do animated projection mapping
and local company Light at Play will power its glowing
geodesic domes — orbs of swirling light that react to sound
and movement. The larger dome is made up of 6,800 LED
lights, each one individually controllable.
“The show is a big experiment,” Garner says. “Can you
put popular media in that kind of austere space and have
people understand how to respond to it? There’s a whole
orchestra pit cleared out for dancing, but what about all the
seats?” ■
The Bohemian Dub Ball begins 7:30 pm Saturday, May 10, at the Hult
Center: $15 students, $20-$25 general. Tickets available at hultcenter.org.
LIGHT AT PLAY’S
YONA APPLETREE
WILL CONDUCT LED
ORBS AT THE BALL
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • MAY 8, 2014
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