We’ve all had them, crazy ideas. Someone once told me they were writing a novel without using the letter “e.” I convinced myself a 4-second video clip looped for an hour qualified me as a director. And I’m pretty sure an artist previously exhibited goldfish in a blender; the show was… “interactive.”

But dammit, sometimes those crazy ideas work. A prime example of this is the annual Boadrum. In 2007, the Japanese experimental-noise-rockers, Boredoms, decided to gather 77 drummers for a concert in Brooklyn entitled 77 Boadrum. The next year, 88 Boadrum pulled together 88 drummers for shows in Los Angeles and New York, featuring members from bands like Oneida, Modest Mouse, We Are Scientists, and TV on the Radio.

Although forcing 99 drummers to beat in unison was the logical next step for the Boredoms in 2009, it seems the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing stole the band’s thunder. This year the ensemble featured a slimmed down nine drummers for Boadrum 9. Opening on none other than 9/9/09 in New York City’s Terminal 5, the Boredoms then traveled to Troy, NY for another show on September 11th.

For the upstate show the J-rockers played in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (otherwise known as EMPAC). The brand-spankin’ new building is known for its highly engineered concert hall, which contains probably some of the world’s best acoustics. Opera and symphony aficionados would quiver at the hall’s ability to amplify the subtlest sounds without distortion, creating seemingly better-than-life clarity.

A hall intended for delicate sound was an ironic choice for a band whose performance is, for lack of a better word, primitive. Nine drums striking in accord to the sound of singer Yamatsuka Eye screaming – yes, screaming – into the microphone served two purposes: to split your eardrums, and to awaken the primordial urge to dance.

The band opened with eight drummers and a Hawaiian-esque drum chant, during which the last musician appeared – carried in on a platform, elevated on the shoulders of about ten black-clad individuals, as he played his instrument. Thereafter, Yamatsuka Eye moved on to a cover of the Door’s “Break on Through” (and I use the term cover in the loosest sense of the word).

With three years of Boadrum experience, the Boredoms’ performance is nearly flawless. That said, based on entertainment value alone, I was certainly left wanting more. The show’s volume and pace never wavered: it started loud, continued loud, and ended loud. After an hour, the rapidity was exhausting, its novelty having long ago waned.

The Boredoms formed in the ‘80s, which explains why they command big-name indie bands like Gang Gang Dance as second fiddles. Deerhunter opened for the Troy show, balancing the Boredoms’ music with their slower, though no less loud, transcendental tunes from Cryptograms and Microcastle. The only downside to having a nine-drummer show was that all instruments need assemblage before the opener goes on stage. Sadly, that left Deerhunter to play on a second stage behind the main one, obscured by Eye’s multi-necked guitar. Without a doubt, the Boredom’s crazy experiment still has a few kinks here and there, but that made it no less enthralling to witness. Here’s to 100 drummers next year!

Photography by Derek Duoba