Epic concerts and excerpts that illustrate why the Boredoms’ mesmerizing tribal explorations are unlike anything else on the planet.

We’ve celebrated the Boredoms before, and recently added DJ Krush’s album-length remix album, Rebore Vol. 3, into the collection. But it’s kinda-sorta a holiday — or at least a few days that a lot of us in the States get to take it easy, hang with friends, explore, and maybe dig for cool stuff online the share.

So let’s go down a wormhole, one that opens the door to a vast braintrust of musicians whose work since the late 1980s comprises dozens, if not hundreds, of releases. Below, epic concerts and excerpts that illustrate why the Boredoms’ mesmerizing tribal explorations are unlike anything else on the planet. Be careful. Watching these in succession just might melt your innards.

77BOADRUM (7/7/07)

On July 7, 2007, the Boredoms converged at Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn to celebrate the date: 7/7/07. They did so by performing with 77 drummers playing 77 drum kits using all 154 hands and 154 feet. The next year, on 8/8/08, they did the same at the La Brea Tarpits in Los Angeles with 88 drummers. (That set remains one of the most powerful musical moments that this freak has ever experienced.)

Live at Sunflancisco (2005)

Landing in San Francisco in 2005, the Boredoms commissioned a filmmaker to document the gig. As a result, we see the band backstage preparing, cooing over a Boredoms baby, and then waltzing onto the stage to blow the roof off.

Boredoms at All Tomorrow’s Parties (2012)

When Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum was invited to curate the famed All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK, he invited an astounding roster. The Boredoms performed the first of their two sets on a day that also included appearances by A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Blanck Mass, Earth, Joanna Newsom, Low, Mount Eerie, Scratch Acid, and the Apples in Stereo. The above fan-shot video offers a clear look at what it’s like to witness so much rhythm on a single stage.

Live in Japan, Dec. 31, 2001

Here they are in 2001. Watch the crowd: they’re totally gone, completely immersed in the pound. They’re doing, “SUPER GO!!!!! → shine in ⚪ shine on,” from an EP of the same name.

Boredoms at New Music Seminar (late ’80s?)

This super early video of the Boredoms captured the band in all its noise rock, post-No-Wave glory. Listen to Yoshimi scream. Revel in their energy, their shock-of-the-new approach. One eyewitness commenter’s report of the gig: “I was there, saw this show… still remember it as one of the best live shows I’ve seen.”

DJ 光光光 – Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin’ 199999

And, finally, because it’s one of the great mix CDs, here’s the Boredoms’ EYE, as DJ Pica Pica Pica, going nuts with his record collection. A glimpse of Discogs’ genre rundown of the mix CD tells the story: “Folk Rock, Minimal, Latin, Trance, Abstract, Space Rock, Drum n Bass, Glitch, Gabber, Deep House, Jungle, Ambient, Tribal, Tribal House, Field Recording, Experimental, Breaks.”