Mobley - DREAM TOUR

In this Dream Tour segment, the indie rock artist, Mobley, reveals who he would want on his ultimate tour lineup. You can check out their picks below:

I’ve put a lot of thought into this, so I hope it doesn’t come across like a copout... but my dream tour would be a little unorthodox.

In the early 70s, The Who were working on Lifehouse, a follow-up to their seminal rock opera, Tommy. The project was eventually abandoned after it collapsed under the weight of its lofty concepts and ambitions, but when I first learned about it as a teenager, one element of the plan captured my imagination completely. The band wanted to take over a London theatre and invite the public to freely attend extended performance/recording sessions over the course of weeks. Crucially, the audience were encouraged to interact with the band and become part of the process.

I love performing because I love creating spaces where transcendent human connection is possible. Sometimes, I find the dominant culture around live music in the US (with its tendencies toward audience passiveness and artist egocentricity) to be limiting in the paradigm it offers. My dream tour would modify the Lifehouse concept and create a series of happenings across the country (or maybe the globe).

The tour would last for one year and travel to 13 cities. First, a small cadre of musicians would arrive in a city and spend two weeks meeting people, making friends, learning about the place they inhabit, and getting plenty of rest—all in ways that are simply impossible when you’re traveling to a new city every day. After that, the musicians would take up residence in some performance space, invite the public in, and spend two weeks making music in spontaneous dialogue with the people and places around them. It would involve playing their own songs, playing songs by/with locals (whether famous professionals or unknown amateurs), ecstatic improvisational sessions, and periods of methodical composition and recording.

On the final night of the two weeks, the group would put on a more conventional concert (free and open to the public) where they’d distill their residency into a set that captures the essence of all their experiences. Rinse and repeat 12 more times.

Even if the tour ultimately failed in its artistic aims (as The Who did with Lifehouse), without question, I think it’d stand in the minds of all involved as an indelible monument to the power of art.

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