Wish You Were Here

June 17, 2009

“I stopped keeping up after Sam Cooke and the Beatles and… what’s the one with Mick Jagger?”

Our exhibitions administrator, Elaine Peterson, was one of the few LACMA staffers down in the offices when I walked in yesterday morning. Everyone else was up on the BP Grand Entrance watching Incubus.

Wait, what?

Yes, Incubus performed live at LACMA Tuesday morning—a secret show put on by KROQ’s Kevin & Bean morning show. They’ve been giving away tickets all week to true-blue Incubus fans and told them the location at the last minute. Kevin and Bean were broadcasting from LACMA all morning, since 5:30 am. The crowd rolled in around 7:00 and, as at any good rock show, started drinking by 7:05. At 8:00 Incubus took the stage and performed three songs from their new album, Monuments and Melodies, which was released this week, then closed it out with their hit “Love Hurts.” LACMA was chosen as the location for this event as a tie-in to the album title—the band wanted to perform in front of a monument, so Chris Burden’s Urban Light provided the proper backdrop for their show.

incu400
incu400

The whole show was taped by KROQ and there were a lot of cameras in the audience, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up on YouTube soon. We’ll tweet about it if any videos surface [Update! As soon as we posted this, a youtube video indeed popped up. Check it out below.] Stay tuned to our Facebook page as well, where our intrepid behind-the-scenes video crew will be posting an interview with Incubus’s singer (and art lover), Brandon Boyd, in the next few days.

Scott Tennent