Lunar Eclipse

Comments (0) By Michael Fox Wednesday, Sep 1 2010

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As naive as it might sound, the Internet allows bands and fans to form musical connections without the money-grubbing middlemen. Globe-hopping videomaker Vincent Moon is on a similar high-bandwidth mission to reclaim filmed performance. His ever-growing series of Take Away Shows rejects stages and studios — that is, the fake and stylized music-video-as-sales-aid model — for everyday public and semipublic spaces, capturing the musicians without knob-twirling aural enhancement. After making his mark with the likes of R.E.M. and the Arcade Fire, Moon is now focusing on comparative unknowns in Southeast Asia and Egypt. More than just a documenter, as valuable as that function is for introducing obscure talents to Euro-and-beyond world-music heads, he is an artist who brings a distinctive look and grammar. Born Mathieu Sara 31 years ago in Paris, this latter-day Alan Lomax has made a concerted (pun intended) effort to log as many miles as possible in his quest. Tonight he makes a rare visit to San Francisco to share a selection of his short films and spread his grassroots gospel. We’ll venture a guess that Moon will shoot a Take Away Show of one of our fine bands ,as long as he’s here. In fact, he just might be open to your suggestions.
Fri., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., 2010