For many people “The Boston Tea Party” refers to an historical event that formed the tipping point for the American Revolution. But two centuries later (give or take) the name relates to a completely different, but no less iconic, moment in time. In the late 1960’s and early 70’s the #53 Berkeley Street Boston Tea Party was a legendary live-music venue featuring musicians from local bands to the Blues, Rock and Pop icons of day.
Music wasn’t the only dimension to a Boston Tea Party experience. Filmmaker Ken Brown cut his “creative teeth” as part of the team creating the venue’s light shows and visual effects.
We actually have one of the coveted DVDs of this work, but those not lucky enough to have one or to have been in Boston 40 years ago have the opportunity to make up for it now …
On Sunday at 7 p.m. at [Boston’s] Institute of Contemporary Art, Brown will screen “Psychedelic Cinema,” a 55-minute compilation of his Tea Party work, and answer questions afterward. The silent film will be accompanied by a live performance by Ken Winokur of Alloy Orchestra, Beth Custer of Club Foot Orchestra, and Jonathan LaMaster of Cul de Sac. Brown’s Tea Party work screened at the Coolidge Corner Theater in 2008, one of only a handful of public showings. We spoke by phone this week.
Q. Set the scene for us in 1967.
A. The club’s original Berkeley Street venue was a former temple, I believe. I was 23 and about to take a crash course in cinema. As a music venue, it was a funky environment, with just enough room in the balcony for our projectors. But it was tremendous fun, too, to be part of that era’s cultural stew.
Q. How did you get the gig?
A. I got recruited by John Boyd and Roger Thomas, who started The Road Light Show, joined by my friend Deb Colburn. I’d been taking film courses at Boston University and was basically the man with the movie camera.
Q. Andy Warhol had some influence on you, correct?
A. Right. If there’s a genesis to my exposure to light shows, it was seeing his Exploding Plastic Inevitable show in Provincetown in 1966. I remember being blown away and thinking, “Me want some of that!” A year later, I was doing it.
Read the entire article/interview here…
Organikos 