Recap and Photos: Nightlands (Feat. Jeff Zeigler) & Mikele Edwards at PhilaMOCA

I just have to gush about what a wonderful experience it was to see/hear Nightlands (a.k.a. Dave Hartley) and Arc in Round’s Jeff Zeigler performing a live original score to 2001: A Space Oddyssey at PhilaMOCA, which was curated by BITBY. I hadn’t viewed the film since I was a little child so I really didn’t remember much about it, and it felt like I was seeing the epic masterpiece for the first time. The cinematography was breath-taking, and the fact that the movie came out over a year before we landed on the moon is absolutely mind-blowing and a magnificent example of the true genius of Stanley Kubrick. Hartely and Zeigler also did a beautifully seamlessly job at composing their material with the film. And since I sat on a couch and really didn’t have a view of them playing their instruments, it was often difficult for me to tell when the music was coming from the duo or the movie, which is also a credit to their masterful hard work. After the performance, I chatted with Dave for a moment. I learned that he only had five full days to orchestrate everything with Jeff since he was on tour with The War on Drugs so the two locked themselves away repeatedly watching 2001. However, Hartley is so familiar with the movie that he did piece together ideas while he was on tour. The final result was one trippy-ass, Pink Floyd-esque evening where I really wished that I had dropped some acid, but there are plans to do the performance again in NYC so I might still have my chance. (Anyone out there have a connect? :o) There was also a fine opening performance by Jeff’s Arc in Round bandmate Mikele Edwards, who was joined by Pink Skull’s Julian Grefe (a.k.a. S PRCSS). You can take a look at our pretty photos from the evening that play with the shadows and lights HERE.