Side Project #1: Daft Punk Tribute!

View from inside our pyramid! Watch out for ghosts!

For the last two months I had teamed up with DJ Bosko Dahmer to throw one of the finest Daft Punk tribute shows of all time. Now, to some, this leads to the reaction, "Wait, what's a Daft Punk?" or "Why would you commit yourself to such a colossal waste of time and energy?" And to those people I suggest you stop reading now because the following will make little sense. But to those who are lucky enough to understand what a Daft Punk show is like, you can understand how excited I was to be involved in a recreation attempt.

Here's a link to some cellphone footage of a real daft punk show. I saw them at Vegoose in 2007 and it changed my life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78z4ARaRgFk&feature=related

In a clear display of insanity, I spent two months going through the DVD of their show minute by minute and recreated all that I could of their light show from scratch in After Effects. We then coordinated with the carpenter from my film Mr. & Mrs. Pratt, E.T. Hazzard to build a 15 foot tall pyramid on which to project my animation. Then, with replica helmets aquired by Bryan, we mounted the pyramid and performed a humble homage to their Alive 2007 tour in front of a unsuspecting crowd of Halloween revelers in Chico, CA.

Keep in mind, no one gave us permission to do this. We knew Chico would be crazy on Halloween and without any advertising and without charging admission, we set up our show in the parking lot of a apartment complex and sent out a few text messages and let the subwoofers draw a crowd. Oh, technology.

The cops showed up a little after 2 a.m., very confused and very angry.

A highlight from the night was overhearing someone seeing the pyramid who clearly had never heard of Daft Punk. They had pulled out their phone when they saw the lit up pyramid to call a friend and say, "Dude, you HAVE to get down here. There's some crazy party, and they've got a rock teepee!"


But I think I should let the pictures and video do the talking:

Mastermind Bosko Dahmer and carpenter E.T. Hazzard set up his brilliantly designed and crafted pyramid/DJ booth.

E.T. putting the final touches on his pyramid as the sun starts to set.

Bosko, Me, and DJ Ryan setting up the projectors.

Us being Daft Punk before the lights turned on.

Some of my animation...

...and some more animation!

Me in the aftermath.


The whole crew that made it happen.

And although everyone was too drunk to capture any really good video, we've got what E.T. happened to grab with his digital still camera in video mode. Watch:

Daft Chico from Bosko on Vimeo.

So, after all that, I needed a vacation. I went to New York and Boston for a couple weeks and just got back. Although I did a lot of things with a lot of cool people, I took no pictures. The only proof that I was there is these drunken doodles I made in central park, and a sketch an elderly man drew of me on the street for $10. Enjoy!

Oh, and here's the only proof I was in Boston: