the nasa party: we are scientists, no really, we are.
so yesterday miguel told me our dear friends the cassettes were playing a show at nasa, which may seem weird, but fitting if you're aware of lead singer shelby's penchant for extraterrestrial lore and the fact that theremin-builder arthur happens to be an engineer as well as rock god. we arrived at goddard space center and learned the entire event was part of a "worldwide space party" known as yuri's night, celebrating the day when russian cosmonaut yuri gagarin first achieved orbit.
in order to document the night, i bought a disposable camera from the gift shop, which explains the rather shoddy quality of these shots. the set-up was way rad and the cassettes definitely brought the house down, so much in fact that they played two sets, albeit we only saw the first one. the stage design consisted of parts found in a prop room, including a nasa puppet that looks eerily like a purple version of franklin delano bluth.
what i found hilarious about the show was how it seemed more people were fascinated by arthur's theremin (which he built himself) and the technology nick uses to project the visuals behind the band as opposed to the band itself. i mean, they were definitely into the music, but it's ironic how arthur and nick, two soft-spoken behind the scenes type of folk for the most part, were the real stars that night. then again, i guess when you're in a room full of scientist-type people, that's the kind of reaction you get.
outside there was a moon bounce, ironically enough, and a dance tent where dj scientific, an honest to god rocket scientist by day, was bringing classic hip-hop songs out to play in full-force. granted, there weren't that many great dancers out there, but we did manage to run into some familiar faces, miguel ran into some old friends from college, and i finally met neil's new wife megan. all in all, it was the most fun i've had at a science fair ever!
as always, the full set is on flickr.