"Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" In Concert
Art Demands to be Experienced
One of the best movies of all time. Animated or not (though what it has done for the animated medium is beyond amazing and should be examined as the cultural shift that it is. Inspiring other works and a brand new style of animation, this will be animator’s new BCE and CE) and it was amazing getting to see this with a live orchestra and with one of my best friends.
The live orchestra was the traveling Broadway Sinfonietta, a symphonic orchestra founded by a woman, comprised of only women with a woman conductor, and majority of them being women of color. When the founder came out on stage to tell us this, the applause was thunderous and seemed to never end. She spoke of inclusivity, of needing to make space for women in these male dominated realms and if they were not going to make room at the table for us, then we would just have to dress our own. And dress she did.
Every musician was in their version of black performance attire and every single one of them absolutely killed it performing this movie composition from beginning to end.
It was at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles on the second day, where we had a special guest drop by: the one and only musical talent and composer of the film, Daniel Pemberton. He wore a bright yellow jumpsuit and I imagined him coming from his art studio having dumped gallons of paint on a canvas to Beethoven and Bach, which was probably untrue but he gave me very awkward genius vibes.
The sounds he created to redefine the superhero genre while also paying legitimate yet classy homage to previous Spider-Man themes did not go unnoticed. It’s modern and hip and such an elevation of Miles Morales’ character as his own version of Spider-Man, that Pemberton created his own style for the genre as well.
Before the movie began and the first crooning strings hit that first note, the EMCEE told us to be loud. They told us to cheer and yell and interact with the film, as excited audience members do.
It was absolutely encouraged.
And that experience, of being packed together with hundreds of other people who loved your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but specifically loved this version of Spider-Man, was fantastic.
We cheered, we hollered, we clapped till our hands were sore. The music swelled and thrummed with us and we collectively enjoyed one another’s presence.
I think that’s what art is. Or, at least, one definition of what makes art good.
To make people feel things. To encourage conversation and community. To, at the end of the day, provide entertainment.
Being able to experience this moment, blissful and beautiful and collective as it was, is something I will always look for in the media I consume.
Ask questions critically, enjoy proportionately.
But more than anything for whatever it is floats your fancy, what do you feel?
