Bang on…a keyboard?

I just love press that includes marketing shout-outs. From the New York Times’ Steve Smith’s review of Sunday’s Bang on a Can Marathon:

Using an Internet metaphor seems especially appropriate, given an
increased emphasis on social media this year. Elsewhere, using Twitter
during a performance might be viewed as bad manners; here, crew members
and volunteers wore T-shirts emblazoned with Twitter-friendly slogans:
“follow @bangonacan” and “tweet #boac.” Stage announcements called
attention to a social-media lounge upstairs, where Twitter users and
old-school bloggers could recharge their equipment.

If, for some reason, you grew weary of sitting and listening, you could
manically strum or beat along with Bang on a Can pieces in the video
game Rock Band 2 in the social-media lounge. Audience die-hards were
invited to have their hands stamped at the end of each hour; collect
all 12, and you were a “Marathon Warrior,” with a certificate and other
enticements to show for it.

The gimmicks could have been overbearing, were it not for the striking
impression made by the performers and music. Moritz Eggert, a German
pianist and composer, showed a comedic flair in solo works that called
for shouting, pounding the piano’s casing and mashing its keys with
feet, chin and rear. Slagwerk Den Haag, a dazzling Dutch percussion group, similarly combined virtuosity and theatricality.

I had 11 hopeful seconds that the Times was linking to Bang on a Can’s Twitter feed when I saw the hyperlink, but no such luck. Obviously, it’s not smart for any website to send people elsewhere, but I will.

Bang on a Can Twitter T’s were a hot commodity; not one but three journalists asked me where they could get them. Here’s Bang on a Can’s Matt LeMay, modeling the goods:

I didn’t end up playing Rock Band, sadly (well, gladly for everyone else). Apparently Nadia Sirota did, though she was almost lured away from Yo Shakespeare by some Journey song.