All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
gallery-native-archive]
Don't Miss Our Ongoing Live Coverage
LOS ANGELES – Maybe it was the incense and meditation. Maybe it was the beautiful stonework and huge windows. Or maybe it was the choir and the dance-off. Whatever it was – something about *Station to Station'*s Los Angeles show, with its compact indoor quarters, felt just a little bit like a spiritual journey.
It started with a processional – whip-cracker Chris Camp leading attendees on a march to the garden outside Union Station, where ambient experimental rockers No Age played a quick, ethereal set. Then the congregation moved inside where the Congos and Sun Araw were burning incense and Roy Johnson was reminding everyone, "This is meditation music."
Then Dan Deacon took the stage and throughout his short but sweet sermon, he ordered those assembled to raise their hands to heaven and convulse on the floor as if possessed (OK, maybe it was just dancing), before asking them pick up the phone for the cause. You see, Deacon has his own app – an app that synchronizes all smartphones at any given show to become their own symphony, playing a song in unison through each set of phone speakers in the room. It truly was a thing to behold.
"We did the most punk rock thing we could do," Deacon said, calling everyone to action, "which is create an app."
Finally, there was Beck, who once again brought his choir along for a set that went from traditional folk-ish songs to "Lonesome Tears" to the crowd-pleaser "Where It's At," which lead into a finale that determined just how much "hiiiiigher!" his singers could take it. (Answer: Pretty high. And it was glorious.)
Of course, there was nothing actually spiritual or religious about the event – no deep-seeded message, no calls for devotion. But if you follow the metaphor just a bit, it becomes easy to see Station to Station as something of a train revival – bringing a new kind of musical, artistic fellowship to the masses. And it's easy to see why they've decided to join the flock.
All photos: Bryan Derballa/WIRED
