Hallucination City: When 99 Electric Guitars Just Won’t Do

By La Verne Casagrande - Thursday March 23rd 2006

Glenn Branca On Wednesday, March 29, Glen Branca will perform his Symphony No. 13 “Hallucination City,” for 100 electric guitars at Disney Hall. Branca originally wrote this piece for the Y2K celebrations in Paris, hoping for an ensemble of 2,000 guitarists. When that performance fell through, he premiered the work outside of the World Trade Center in New York City with 100 guitarists.

Answer me this: Which song would you cover for an encore and why? You have 100 guitars at your disposal and you must put them all to use. Leave your answer as a comment below using your preferred contact email before noon Monday, March 27.

What’s in it for me?: Our favorite answer wins two tickets to the show.

“Hallucination City,” for 100 electric guitars
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 8:00pm
Walt Disney Cryogenic Tomb/Concert Hall
111 S. Grand
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 850-2000
Tickets a scant $10!

What now?

7 Responses to “Hallucination City: When 99 Electric Guitars Just Won’t Do”

Posted by Mike 3/23/06 at 11:47 pm # Reply

Won’t be fooled again – the Who
Posted by Pete 3/24/06 at 2:56 am # Reply

“Only Shallow,” by My Bloody Valentine. I think there are probably 50 or so guitars overdubbed on that one in the first place.
Posted by Joe D 3/24/06 at 9:30 am # Reply

Louie Louie, except with 100 guitars playing it the Earth might split in two.
Posted by jeff chiliburger 3/24/06 at 11:42 am # Reply

nugent, stranglehold. each guitarist gets eight bars to prove his/her worth. crowd cheers determine who stays for the second pass. and so on and so forth, each according to his or her means, each according to his or her ability. this will be the first-ever 145-minute version of strangehold on record.
Posted by L.A. Concert Calendar: March 27 - April 2 3/27/06 at 10:43 am # Reply

[...] AND FURTHERMORE: Win tickets to see Hallucination City for 100 guitars MONDAY Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt @ Knitting Factory Hopewell @ Spaceland (free) Ghostface Killah @ House of Blues Aziz Ansari @ UCB Theater [...]
Posted by Spike 3/27/06 at 5:12 pm # Reply

The 1812 Overture. But, you know, with guitars, so even more badass then it is in V for Vendetta.
Posted by Jonathan 6/30/06 at 11:07 pm # Reply

I’d like to hear Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” done with guitars, all of them doing a different, contrapuntal part, and 10 of them could be doing a half-step up from the others in each passage.