Review–Erik Santos@UMMA: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

After this Thursday, one of my biggest regrets over the past 3 years I’ve been at school here is not spending enough time at the UMMA. The UMMA is a great cultural resource not only because of its amazing collection of paintings and its innovative gallery setup, but also because it is frequently a live performance venue for artists of all types (and the shows are free!). The event I attended this Thursday had very little to do with any of the common connotations associated with a night at an art museum. The event was accessible and enjoyable even to people uninterested in esoteric art, most of the people in the audience didn’t have grey hair yet, and the audience was actually encouraged to be loud. The event also had nothing to do with paintings or sculptures, this was a live performance of the classic rock album Ziggy Stardust and a short animated film screening by University of Michigan composition professor Erik Santos and his co-performers Toko Shiiki Santos and Collin McRae.
Santos devoted the first half of his show to playing David Bowie’s classic Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album in its entirety. Covering this album live is difficult, as much of its unique sound comes from the Bowie’s heavy studio experimentation with layering multiple guitar tracks with a multitude of distortion effects. Santos adapted the original music to play by himself on acoustic guitar. As a fan of Bowie, I admit I was pretty skeptical about such a stripped down adaptation. Nevertheless, I loved the performance. Rather than imitate the album’s instrumental variety, Santos’ focused, minimalist approach captured the raw energy of a live rock performance. I was particularly amazed by his vocal performance—critics often label Bowie the rock and roll chameleon due to his ability to seamlessly change the range, tone, and character of his vocals. The live cover presented me with a narrative—the story of a rockstar’s rise to fame followed by his tragic inability to cope with the pressures of stardom.

The highlight of the second half of the show was a screening of an animated short. Toko and Collin are responsible for design and animation, while Erik composed the video’s score. The video is a response to the suffering caused by the recent tsunami in Japan. Narrated in Japanese, the film chronicles the journey of a blue dragon, born from innocent and pure human sympathy, as it flies to Japan to comfort and inspire tsunami survivors. The dragon’s journey is harrowing, but as the blue dragon begins to falter, a panoply of colorful dragons come to its aid. The animation style of the video was striking and gorgeous. The lush color palette demonstrates the tangible effects of human emotions. At the outset, when characters are grief-stricken by the tragedy, the world is enveloped in shades of blue; nevertheless, people’s continuing optimism and good will unleash a hopeful rainbow of colors which illuminates the sky. (Watch the video here if interested)
Needless to say, I enjoyed my evening at the UMMA very much, and plan to go back soon for special events. For those interested in checking the UMMA out, consider attending UMMA After Hours on Friday, October 18th. I hear there’ll be free donuts and cider.