“a flurry of balloon animals exploded from the venue’s rafters onto the crowd”
On May 13th and 14th we helped The Roots launch their new album, … And Then You Shoot Your Cousin with a massive twisted balloon drop of 3,000 balloon animals per night.
The Roots created an “opera” instead of a traditional album listening party. It was an artistic statement that traversed African-American history and hip-hop music. The show opened with Black Thought’s haunting monologue backed by deep bass drums and strobe lights while 3,000 balloons dropped onto the stage. As Lucas Alvardo-Farrar from Revolt wrote, early on in the show, in a moment of joyful bewilderment, a flurry of balloon animals exploded from the venue’s rafters onto the crowd – for again, this was not a stereotypical rap show, nor was it a linear one.”
The balloons became part of the set, adding new elements to the performance. Dancers freestyled, tumbled, played in the sea of balloons. The audience was caught up in the moment, by the end of the night “a chain reaction started and soon everybody has a balloon, waving them in time with the music like baseball fans in an unforeseen outcome from the randomness in play.” – Eddie “Stats” – Okayplayer
Questlove talks about the Album and the Performance
You can see the balloon animals drop and get a sense of the show in this short video by Okayplayer.
Dancer Jay Donn
Miss Strand captured this short video of dancer Jay Donn flexing through the mass of balloons.