Dokumentasi The Velvet Underground oleh Andy Warhol

Setelah merilis reissue album ketiga selftitled, The Velvet Underground memberikan sebuah harta karun dari pertengahan abad untuk bernostalgia: dokumentasi pertunjukkan live The Velvet Underground yang berwarna.

Diambil gambarnya oleh Andy Warhol di tahun 1967, dokumentasi berdurasi 33 menit tersebut menampilkan Lou Reed cs. memainkan lagu-lagu klasik seperti I’m Waiting For The Man, Run Run Run, Venus In Furs dan beberapa kali menangkap audiens yang terlihat sedang berada dalam pengaruh ganja atau lsd.

Simak di bawah videonya dan teknik pengambilan gambar Andy Warhol.

This newly unearthed film, which Warhol shot during a concert at the Boston Tea Party, features a variety of filmmaking techniques. Sudden in-and-out zooms, sweeping panning shots, in-camera edits that create single frame images and bursts of light like paparazzi flash bulbs going off mirror the kinesthetic experience of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, with its strobe lights, whip dancers, colorful slide shows, multi-screen projections, liberal use of amphetamines, and overpowering sound. It is a significant find indeed for fans of the Velvets, being one of only two known films with synchronous sound of the band performing live, and this the only one in color. It’s fitting that it was shot at the Boston Tea Party, as the Beantown club became one of the band’s favorite, most-played venues, and was where a 16-year-old Jonathan Richman faithfully attended every show and befriended the group. Richman, who would later have his debut recordings produced by John Cale, and later yet record a song about the group, is just possibly seen in the background of this film.