What Would You Do if You Saw the Melvins’ King Buzzo Performing on the Subway?
In case you’ve never been to NYC or are for whatever reason unaware that this is a thing: people perform on subway cars and platforms on a regular basis. It’s so frequent, in fact, that the chances of you getting on the subway and not seeing at least one musician or dancer are basically nil. And, yeah, a lot of these people are less than spectacular at their craft. (And sometimes just plain annoying. Fuck you, dudes who break dance in the middle of a crowded subway car!!!) But sometimes you see a good one, and it’s really cool. And even if you never see a good one… the whole thing is just such a regular component of the New York City subway system that I can’t really imagine it ever going away. Even Bloomberg never tried to put a stop to it, and he had all the homeless people deported.
So I’m way into the concept behind the web series Subway Tracks, which focuses “on musicians performing spontaneously within the subway cars/subway platforms of New York City.” Awesome idea, right? I mean, for example, if you were getting on the subway and you saw King Buzzo from the Melvins performing on the platform, you’d FREAK out, wouldn’t you? You’d probably think: “Wait… is that… is that King fucking Buzzo??? It can’t be. Why would he be performing on a subway platform? It must just be some guy who looks just like him. And sounds just like him. And has his same inimitable hairstyle. oH MY GOD IT IS KING BUZZO!!!”
Just one problem though: the subway platform on which the man known to his friends as Buzz Osborne is performing appears to be deserted. Or possibly cordoned off. Or maybe there were people watching, and the crew just didn’t film them because they couldn’t get releases or something. (One person does pass through the frame, but it could have just been a PA or something who accidentally got into the shot.) Hell — there aren’t even any wide shots to showcase the environment (that’s why I had to make that dumb Photoshop pic — I couldn’t get a decent screencap)! Dude might as well have been standing on a subway platform set instead of an actual subway platform. Kind of a bummer — one of the most fun aspects of this ought to be the reactions of onlookers and passers-by. Instead, we just get Mr. Osborne playing for the camera man. Two words: wasted opportunity.
[via The PRP]
