Peep This: Live From Nowhere – Weakened Friends “Blue Again”

For those of you not in the know, the folks behind Live from Nowhere are a bunch of badasses. Trudging through snow to the ruins of a 17th century home. Gaining access to a crumbling vaudevillian era theatre. Or balancing precariously on an old train transport bridge above a river. The backdrops are equally as intriguing and wonderful as the performances they capture.

While we have featured them here before, its those constantly changing backgrounds of their videos that especially appeal to us. Its all about the music and the performance. The beautifully decrepit backdrops, often peeling with paint or littered with memories and machines (or bricks or in this case “orange sludge”), paint their own pictures that dovetail with the stories of the artists. Two totally different things juxtaposed and captured for our viewing and listening pleasure. Something old and something new. A brilliant pairing.

Annie Hoffman of Weakened Friends said of their recent session, “Stepping into that space was absolutely surreal. It wasn’t just a vacant building that had once housed a brewery, everything was still there!!! Equipment, paperwork and schedules, ingredients, kegs and bottles. It was as if the employees had just vanished into thin air in the middle of a work day. Being in that space was fascinating and, at the same time, a bit sad and sobering (for lack of a better term). Playing music there felt like performing in a time capsule. It was a really unique experience!“

And in the case of this episode, it was just that. A time capsule. Co-producer of the series, Emily Graham-Handley, elaborates, “Before the brewery shut down it was a hub of activity. In addition to the giant vats and bar areas there was a boxing ring and vintage motorcycle collection. Old documents lay on long-defunct conveyor belts. The building was a labyrinth of clues about it’s former life.”

And with such a coffer of curiosities, I would imagine it difficult to choose just one location in the building. Nico Rivers, who co-founded LFN told us, “This building is just one of many possessions belonging to a top-notch collector. Each floor of the building seemed to have a different theme – a brewery on this floor, old juke boxes and records on this floor, arcade games in this room and on and on. It was a beautiful scene preserved like a dusty, smelly time capsule.”

So who knows what other magical sessions will come from that relationship…we can only hope to see more from LFN soon and be sure to check out Weakened Friends, pick up the single for ‘Blue Again’ on your preferred digital media and check them out on the road. Throughout September and October they have shows in NY, Maine, Vermont before heading south and then overseas. Rock on.