ANDREW W.K. & THE CALDER QUARTET

Andrew W.K. has a message for me and for WPU readers: "PARTY HARD!!!"

I saw him perform last night at the Coolidge Theatre with the Calder Quartet, which was really beautiful. Andrew W.K. is a great performer, beloved for such memorable anthems as "Party Hard," "Get Wet"and he's touring with a really high-brow (and sexy!) classical string quartet playing new modern chamber music (see above).

Regarding the pleasure of dudes, it is risky for Andrew to introduce such difficult music to his touring liveshow and bring his core audience of straight, white, hardcore and metal kids along for such a classical program. Sometimes, Andrew played along on the piano kind of like Jerry Lee Lewis, banging out treble cleff rock'n'roll piano octaves and singing about parties. Most of the night was all about the Calder Quartet, however, which was great because they played beautifully and were exciting.

It was also fun to overhear dudes in the lobby during intermission consider what the fuck Andrew W.K. had suckered them into. I hope that was the point, but I would have enjoyed a W.K. show either way: as pure positive pro-youth party inspiration or more of the classical selections we heard. To be fair, the second half of the night included string and piano arrangements of four favorites from the W.K. songbook, during which a lot of fratty guys rushed the stage to sing along and make the quartet look nervous. When I asked Andrew about the collaboration after the show, he said he was interested in "expanding the vibe," and I think I totally understand what he means.