Beneath Underground: LAFMS in Old Town Pasadena • 2016
Produced as a collaboration between myself, dublab and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, this event interspersed a film screening, live music, and walking tour led by members of the longstanding experimental noise collective that emerged from the creative cauldron of pre-Old Town Old Town in the 1970s. We walked, talked, and revisited locations that were formative to the group's founding during the mid-1970s including the site of the original Poo Bah Records, the Pasadena Artists Concern Gallery, and the 35 S. Raymond Building. On a busy Friday night, newsprint posters were left behind on windows to mark each location on the path featuring photos by Fredrik Nilsen from the LAFMS archives and from a late 1970s Pasadena Planning & Community Development Survey. Following the tour, we screened the Mark McNeill and Holly Thompson documentary LAFMS: How Low Can You Go? at the Armory and, out back, LAFMS performed a 1.5-hour live outdoor jam with the 1970s-era photos projected behind in a direct line of vision from the site of their first performance (now Parsons).
This event was hosted by Armory Center for the Arts, presented as part of ArtNight 2016 and made possible in part by a mini-grant from the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division. Photos by Holly Thompson.
