Dec 13, 2017
Revisiting the Downtown scene
NY Times critic’s notebook
Kamikaze Ground Crew, the Jazz Passengers and the Microscopic Septet — three bands from New York’s Downtown scene of the 1980s — shared a stage last week for the first time. They made me wonder: Were the ’80s also our least existentialist decade, one of our most embodied? In a digital marketplace of crippling choice, there’s room for a lot more of that. The old downtown scene isn’t just a guide for today’s eclectic thinkers; it’s a foil.
