ADHK would like to invite you to our annual fundraiser.

Parlor Tricks and Carnival Games

In the style and fashion of the 1893 Colombian exposition in Chicago.

ADHK invites you to an evening of games, prizes, entertainment, and chivalry.  Open to ALL AGES.

Admission:
$20.00 online @ www.archedream.eventbrite.com
$25.00 at the door
(12 & under FREE!!)
Costumes encouraged and will be rewarded.

Ticket Prices include:
FULL SHOW of ArcheDream’s DEEP BLUE in two parts
2 tickets to be used for drinks (21&up ID enforced for alcohol) or games.

Raffled items and prize items include paintings and drawings by Alan Bell, ADHK Art Director, and items by Local Philadelphia artists and organizations such as Philadelphia Circus School, Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, Snip Philadelphia, and many others.

Sponsor’s include:
Jin Ja - www.jinjadrink.com
Philadelphia Distilling – http://www.philadelphiadistilling.com/
Philly Brewing Company – www.philadelphiabrewing.com
Artistry – http://www.artistry.com

ArcheDream for HUMANKIND would love to THANK all who came out to our new studio for our community and FRIEND-Raiser on Tuesday March 20th.

Special thanks to ArcheDream members, volunteers, and Bob Santoro and Marsha Shiflet (our lovely landlords and friends) for helping to make the night happen!

Please check out Burn After Reading Magazine article about the ADHK Friend-Raiser event, written by Jessi “Sprocket” Janusee, link HERE http://burnafterreadingmag.com/archedream-for-humankind-friend-raiser-kicks-off-a-new-workspace/

We loved seeing all of you, meeting new artists and supporters of ADHK!!

For a continued interest in our company, suggestions, collaboration inquiries, or bookings please contact us at info@adhk.org

ArcheDream, among other amazing talented groups, will be performing at Philly’s first ever, Yoga Rave!

“Yoga Rave is a  party like none other in the world; a new concept in fun where the mind and body respond to a uniquely crafted sequence of high-energy music, movement, yoga & meditation. It gives individuals a new way of having fun in a drug-free, alcohol-free environment…  “

For tickets: http://phillyyogarave.eventbrite.com/

Yoga Rave Philadelphia

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public! We hope to see you there!
Location: 1324 Mifflin St. Philadelphia, PA 19148
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd
Time: 5:30-7:30

October 29th, 2011. Possibly one of the biggest party nights of the year, thanks to the world-recognized holiday celebrating the bizarre, the underworldly, and the otherwordly, just around its corner. We’re speaking, of course, of Halloween, and in addition to being a fantastic occasion for costumes, candy, and chaotic parties, it’s also one of the best opportunities for live shows, allowing artists to come out in a blaze of style and passion with something unique and special for the night when spirits walk and demons dance. The Fox Theater in Oakland is no stranger to guests of many colors, persuasions, and strangeness, and with stiff competition to draw in concertgoers tonight — with deadmau5 taking residence at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Primus rocking the streets of Berkeley at the Greek Theater, and the Damned keeping the San Francisco punks packed to the gills in Slim’s — it seemed only fitting for them to play host to one of the most anticipated acts of the entire year: Shpongle Live, the full-band-plus-dancers-and-more ensemble to masterfully color the otherworldly psybient music of UK psytrance masters Simon Posford and Raja Ram.

A fully-enveloping red curtain at the front of the Fox Theater’s stage did much to raise the crowd’s anticipation of the evening’s headliners, who played for nearly 3 hours when they finally graced the stage at 9:30pm. While said curtain remained closed for the opening hours of the evening, the stage was graced with performances from a few intense openers, such as the psychedelic-cum-jammy DJ tunes of Outersect, and the expert beatboxing and atmospheric post-punkish electronica of Lynx. Due, no doubt, to the subtle lighting that offered extremely limited perception of the early acts, the blast of light, color, and sound that flowed forth from the spreading curtains was met with glorious shouts and cries of joy when Shpongle at last took the stage. Unlike their last two performances in the Bay Area, compositional mastermind Simon Posford was joined onstage by his partner, Melbourne flutist Raja Ram, who announced, midway through the set, that tonight was the first time he had ever been to California. To say that the crowd was stunned and overjoyed to welcome him to the Fox Theater was an understatement; such a wave of cheering met his words that the sound onstage was almost dwarfed — if only for a moment.

While Raja and Simon definitely took center stage and piloted the course of the evening’s technicolor sprawl, they were far from being the main attraction in terms of visual accompaniment. Nearly every single one of the 15 songs that night was graced with a performance from a collection of dancers, in all manner of color, movement, elegance, strangeness, and everything in between. From the massive “slinky dancers” that undulated about the stage, swathing the darkness in rainbow hues like a handful of vibrating, oversized glowsticks, to the dance troupes that swirled about, decked in sequins and flowing ribbons, every piece was brought to new life with the magnificent motion exhibited by the onstage performers. There was dancing from all walks of life, costumes seen in this dimension and other unknown ones, and just enough light and motion on behalf of the technical crew for that last dash of hallucinogenic icing on the psychedelic cake.

However, the most rewarding part of the live experience was definitely the opportunity to hear Shpongle’s music as it was meant to be: live, performed with actual instruments, instead of a collection of clips and loops manipulated by the graceful hands of Simon Posford. Accompanying the dynamic duo was a full band of eclectic musicians, with drums, guitars, cellos, violin, and extra percussion gracing the stage. Simon took over lead guitar duties for many of the pieces, including the well-loved “Dorset Perception” and the new favorite “Electroplasm”, while Raja provided his own musical silver tongue in the form of the sharply elegant flute. Extra backup singers accompanied the group from song to song, with the vocals ranging from chorusing chants to thunderous, operatic blasts, and other times the frontmen provided the dialogue themselves through a set of heavily-processed microphone channels. The most exciting moment of the night, in terms of sheer musical performance, was the performance with a hang drum, an instrument possessed of so many aspects of a UFO that it might as well be one; it maintains the characteristic bulging saucer shape, and make sounds best described as a steel drum played by a waterfall in a forest that has seen every color but green.

The joy of the performance was mirrored perfectly between the crowd pressed at the barricade and the color-bathed musicians onstage. Simon, whose birthday had been the evening prior, seemed incredibly happy to finally bring his circus of inexplicable beauty to the Bay Area, and Raja Ram was seen jubilantly tossing hats, shirts, and slipmats into the crowd between songs, in between their dances with the demons, satyrs, ghosts, and other humanoid creatures from worlds beyond. The pause for an encore break was subtle and swift, with the band returning for another treat in the form of “Beija Flor”, a much-loved B-side that was given new life in this organic performance. Simon and Raja closed the night with a magnificent performance of “Around The World In A Tea Daze”, which saw the duo, and their band, accompanied by every single performer that had graced the stage during their set — an eclectic potpourri of multifaceted dancers, the towering satyr, the undulating slinky, and the gorgeous opera queens that dazzled the side of the stage with their shimmering gowns. Simon remained onstage for one final, heartfelt farewell and a warm word of celebration and acknowledgement for their fans, who numbered nearly three thousand by the time the collective had departed from the stage.

My own anticipation for this show could not have been higher; as I had made mention back in June when Simon brought the Shpongletron Experience to San Francisco, his announcement of an actual Shpongle Live performance was some of the most fantastic news I had heard that year. It was, as well, a difficult decision for me to make, in terms of which show I should attend. The clincher, however, was not how I had already seen certain acts, nor that I wanted to be at one of the smaller venues for that night; more than anything, it was scheduled to be a mindbending experience and a glorious performance that had never made its way to the US, much less to California, and it was unclear as to whether it would ever be seen again. I would definitely hope that the overwhelmingly positive response, the brilliant and gorgeous energy, and the magnificence of the spectacle — all of which were in full effect for the evening — will be enough to convince Simon and Raja to bring their incredible collective back to the Bay Area again, when the next Shpongle album is released. Who knows… we may yet see a combination of Shpongle Live, the Shpongletron, and Hallucinogen (Posford’s other main psytrance project) in the form of an evening of electronic and world fusion movement unlike any that has ever yet been beheld in this dimension.

Psychedelic electronica conglomerate Shpongle packed thousands of costumed fans into Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday night, delighting the crowd with over two hours of throbbing music and a stunning stage show.

Shpongle, a UK-based group, has only performed once before in the US, making the late night show a special opportunity for ecstatic trance fans who lined up around the block for hours before the performance. Like Tuesday’s Insane Clown Posse show (read my review here), Hammerstein security was extraordinarily thorough, forcing attendees to throw out their lighters and turning pockets inside out in search of contraband. Also like the ICP show, many of the ticketholders were dressed up, although the Shpongle fanbase went far beyond clown makeup. Halloween costumes like fairies and superhereos were matched by kids who simply seemed to love glowsticks, outlining their entire bodies with glowing tubes and other outfits designed to take advantage of the massive blacklights set up in the ballroom.

The sold-out show filled the floor as well as both mezzanines of Hammerstein, and with the house lights off, the crowd was awash with glowing, dancing lights and colors as Shpongle fans brought plenty of their own special effects with them. But even the strongest laser pointers and spinning glowsticks paled in comparison to what Shpongle had in store for the night.

Led by the outlandishly-robed Raja, whose brightly-colored Dumbledore costume remained on even once he pulled off the beard (or maybe that’s how he always dresses?), the 13 member band delivered song after song of heavy electronica infused with swirling psychedelic flourishes. Shpongle’s music, as well as their very name, is supposed to be an audio representation of the psychedelic experience as offered by various drugs, and with soaring synth, intricate guitars, and all manners of samplings and distortions, it sounded like a trip down the rabbit hole and then some.

The throbbing, energetic but still mystical-sounding music was matched by a stage show of the highest caliber. Dancers prowled the stage in slow-motion, wearing masks featuring multiple faces morphed into one, multi-eyed creature right out of an acid trip. A large, multicolored tube-creature that could only be described as slinky-meets-wacky-wall-crawlers roamed the stage during the night’s second song, its spherical appendages letting it change directions from any angle (see my slideshow in the sidebar). Raja himself occasionally howled into unique instruments this Examiner has never seen before, emitting guttural hymns that smoothly fit into the psychedelic rhythms created by the rest of the band.

For those further back on the floor and unable to see the impressive live action on stage, stunning lasers kicked in about 30 minutes into the show, and they were there to stay for the rest of the night, delighting the audience of trippers, ravers, and rollers who danced with each other and enjoyed their eye-dilating experiences. The crowd had at least one other metal fan as well – within a minute of this Examiner removing his jacket to reveal a Slipknot t-shirt, a Rhode Island native dressed like a gorilla tapped my shoulder and we spoke for several minutes about Slipknot, Metallica, and more. After asserting that I was “a great guy,” the gorilla then asked if I “wanna dip a molly?”

Indeed, fans throughout the venue were far friendlier than an average rock concert, smiling, dancing, and simply generating a euphoric and positive atmosphere. With gently pulsating beats, heady lead instruments, and a live ceiling of lasers gently sweeping and changing colors, the Shpongle experience was absolutely otherworldly, transporting all 3,500 ticketholders into a world where colors all glowed, bodies were constantly in motion, and music was felt and seen just as much as it was heard.

It was tough to tell for this first-time Shpongler if the music was improvised or following already written tracks, but regardless, the collaborative nature of the group made for a fascinating live music experience. Violins and guitars in particular stood out against the electronica beats, and while none of the vocals seemed understandable, the vocal rhythms added an enjoyable layer to the already dense sonic tapestry being woven inside the ballroom.

Shpongle played for well over two straight hours, which was just long enough for this not-heavily-inebriated fan, and the colorful balloon-filled ending seemed to be a relief for some of those next to me suffering from cottonmouth and teeth-grinding. But other than the handful of attendees who had to seek medical attention for a condition that can only be classified as “tripping f*cking balls,” Shpongle easily delivered for their fans, more than satisfying anything one could expect from a trance or electronica concert.

There’s no lack of similar acts that play New York on a regular basis, from Infected Mushroom (read my review from Tel Aviv here) to the Disco Biscuits (my most recent review here) to Kaskade, who also played Friday night, 20 blocks uptown at Roseland Ballroom. But Shpongle brings something entirely unique to the table, from their wide variety of musicians and instruments to their stunning psychedelic imagery, that is simply unparalleled in the music world. You can tell even by listening to their recorded music, but it takes a live Shpongletron show to really understand just how all-encompassing their psychedelic sound can be. Until now, Shpongle shows have been a rarity in the US, but with the success of Friday night’s show, it can only be a matter of time until they return for their passionate fans.

As always, stay tuned to the Hard Rock Examiner for further information on tickets and all local rock and heavy metal news by subscribing at the top of this page, or follow me attwitter.com/NYROCKEXAMINER.

http://www.examiner.com/hard-rock-music-in-new-york/new-yorkers-get-shpongled-for-halloween-review