Superorganism @ Echoplex 3/19/2018
If you combined the collaborative energy of a jam session with the youthful exuberance of pretending to be a rockstar in front of your bedroom mirror, it would feel a lot like seeing Superorganism in concert.
Encased in projection screens and tall, neon lights, Superorganism delivered a show that felt part-psychedelia, part-video game, part-lo-fi hip-hop. This performance preferred not to show you what Superorganism is but rather what it can do. The opener, “It’s All Good” enters smoothly only to grow into Creature Feature-esque wails. It immediately let the crowd know to expect and embrace the unorthodox.
Like a Tumblr feed full of both original and recycled ideas, Superorganism put all its talents on display, feeling unique and familiar simultaneously. “Night Time” took you on a wild time out at the discotheque while “SPRORGNSM” bopped along with the childish fun of Passion Pit. The whole time, young ringmaster Orono Noguchi guided the audience from song-to-song the way a teacher keeps a classroom engaged. One moment she would ask for “interpretive dance” and the next declare “We are underwater” as aquatic sounds fill the room.
She delivers each line in the teenage voice that stayed with you long after adolescence ended, the one that somehow sounds angsty, chill, and detached all at the same time. On the surface it registered as teen angst, but as it sunk in you realized the teens are, once again, just trying to save us. Online romance and sleep deprivation affect more than just the young ‘uns.
At this point, Superorganism is more than just sentient: it’s sensational.
