Verdun + The Young Equestrians Journey West

Tuesday, October 14
Admission: free, $10 minimum
Showtime: 8pm
reservations are recommended

Verdun and The Young Equestrians Journey West
Brooklyn musical acts Verdun and The Young Equestrians bring the Monkey King to Monkeytown and perform their original scores for two episodes of the epic 1985 Chinese television series, Journey to the West. A fictionalized account of a monk who walked from China to India, the 16th-century story is a mix of historical account, folk legend, and alchemical knowledge. It was adapted into a 25-episode live action TV series in the mid 80s complete with overdone art direction and state-of-the-art-circa-1985 special effects. Tonight’s episodes show the origins of the Monkey King, the itinerant monk’s most powerful disciple, and his first forays into fucking shit up. Verdun’s psychedelic electronic sprawl and The Young Equestrians’ old-timey acid-trip freakouts score the primate prelude to the occidental journey.

Journey to the West:

Verdun:
Verdun is the sound of subway rats building musical monuments to the Brothers and Sisters crushed under-wheel. Drums made of Saran Wrap beat with femurs by a drum-leader drugged out on VHS Head Cleaner over which the rest of the rats use electricity stolen from the third rail to power an orchestra of broken Sidekicks and Blackberries, bleating melodies of error messages through echo tunnels under the city.

The Young Equestrians:
The Young Equestrians was formed by musicians who played around Brooklyn with each other in mostly free improvised contexts. Our music is based on the things that are important to us. Things like dying young, dying rich, and dying in the jump seat of a crashing plane.