Guerrilla gigging is a type of concert performed in a non-traditional setting or arranged in an unusual fashion. It became associated with
punk rock,
indie rock and
noise rock bands in
Britain and the
United States during the early to mid 2000s. Bands who perform at such events are sometimes referred to as "
guerrilla rockers".
There are two major elements that characterise a guerrilla gig. The first is similar in concept to a
flash mob, and involves a band or artist performing in an unexpected, sometimes unannounced, setting not designed to accommodate live music, such as on a bus or
subway train, parking lot, or building lobby. The second characteristic involves their being arranged very quickly and without the typical processes of publicity or advance ticket sales. They are usually announced through various internet message boards as well as by text messages and sometimes last-minute flyers.
It is often viewed as an example of punk rock's idealistic
"do it yourself" philosophy (which aimed to achieve underground artistic success without commercialisation by avoiding mainstream corporate record labels) being applied via modern communications technology, in a way which would not have been possible before the advent of the internet. The popularity of
online forums and
social-networking sites has made it possible for bands to immediately disseminate news of a gig to thousands of people only hours before a performance, at minimal cost, and bypassing the traditional print and radio-based methods of publicising concerts.
One of the earliest known example of a guerrilla gig was in
November of
1968 when
Jefferson Airplane, by the suggestion of Swiss-French filmmaker
Jean-Luc Godard, began work on a political semi-documentary he called One A.M. (One American Movie). Godard, who felt that Jefferson Airplane best represented the youth revolution of the day, wanted the band in his film while keeping to a somewhat militant spirit. Godard had the musicians set up their equipment, sans permit, on a hotel rooftop in midtown
Manhattan at the peak of the working day. Harried New Yorkers below scanned the sky above the hotel and were able to hear Jefferson Airplane complete one song, an incendiary version of "House At Pooneil Corners". The performance culminated with the New York City Police shutting down the unexpected performance with threats of arrest due to the noise disturbance. The Godard film was never released, but documentarian
D. A. Pennebaker finished it up and renamed it One P.M. (for One Pennebaker Movie). A recount of this performance can be seen on the "Fly Jefferson Airplane" documentary DVD released in 2004.
This Jefferson Airplane performance predates the similar although more well-known performance when
The Beatles,on
January 30,
1969, played a gig entirely unannounced on the roof of
Apple Studios at Savile Row, London. They performed several takes of their newest songs (which would appear on the album
Let It Be) as the passers-by on the street looked up in confusion. After the third take of "
Get Back", they too were kicked off by the police due to noise complaints.
Development in Britain
A few British bands became known for "guerrilla gigging" in the early 2000s. The technique first developed there because the concentrated social and geographical nature of the
London music scene made it possible to generate a favourable "buzz" and ensure attendance at the events.
The Libertines were among the first to use internet technology to accomplish this, often announcing a gig a few hours before the show by providing cryptic instructions for fans to meet at a given place to await an escort to a flat, where the admission price would be collected and the concert would take place in a living room or basement.
The Others provide another example, having performed brief shows in tube trains (subways) on the
London Underground for mixed groups of fans and startled passengers. In another famous instance, singer
Badly Drawn Boy earned £4.60 from passersby while
busking outside London's
Waterloo Station for a day in 2003, going largely unrecognized by the public.
The United States
Rhode Island noise rock bands such as
Lightning Bolt, and other American bands, have embraced this new extreme DIY culture.
Many bands have embraced this by going down the streets on wagon hitches such as the Dropkick Murphys and AC/DC. In the mid-to-late 80's Rodent Kontrol, a punk band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, gained local notoriety for their guerrilla gigs in and around downtown Ann Arbor and on the University of Michigan campus. Some of these shows terminated in the band's ejection from the unauthorized venues by police or security guards.
Parodies
Some have criticised the whole concept as self-indulgent and ego-driven; manipulating fans love of a band to see how far they can be made to disrupt the normal course of their own lives in order to see the impromptu performance and thus demonstrate their devotion to the artist in question.
The band
Half Man Half Biscuit have parodied the concept twice in music, firstly in the song "Secret Gig" (from the album
Four Lads Who Shook The Wirrel) and later in the song "Asparagus Next Left" (from the album
Achtung Bono) - the latter containing the line:
"We’ve just been performing a guerrilla gig - In the middle of another group’s guerrilla gig - Well surely that’s the ultimate guerrilla gig - But still they cried like girls"See also
