The first day of New York Comic Con was a relatively laid-back affair, a few panels in the morning for industry professionals, and a dry run for exhibitors on the main floor before the craziness of the weekend. It was an afternoon for strolling around, taking the time get your bearings, looking at amazing new things without getting jostled by massive crowds, and realizing how thin your pocketbook will be stretched over the next few days.
The first major event of the convention came in the evening, with a kick-off concert in the IGN Theater.
Tom Morello opened the show, performing with a three-piece backing band. His gravelly vocals and wailing guitar created an immediate mood, and held the audience rapt through the set of metallic protest songs and thrashing acoustic interludes. The band was tight and propulsive, and the hour-long performance wrapped with Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”: a stirring defense of the working class, played with fervor and passion.
Then, it was time for Z-Trip, appearing onstage to rock the crowd with his disc jockey pyrotechnics. His booth featured a LED display on the front, a large projection screen loomed behind him, and his face was lit faintly from his laptop. He introduced himself quickly and launched into a specially-designed comic-con set, peppered with vocal samples and scattershot song selections: a cut-up version of “The Imperial March”, the “Super Mario Brothers” theme set to a stutter-stop beat, Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” mixed with Public Enemy’s “Bring The Noise”, Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s “Superman Lover”, Gorillaz’ “Dirty Harry”, Eric B. & Rakim, Johnny Cash, Daft Punk, and Jane’s Addiction. Video clips from Super Friends and Star Wars and the old Fleischer Superman cartoons played across the walls, and the crowd roared in approval. It was a great beginning to what promises to be a long and exciting weekend of media overload.
Photos © 2011 Marnie Ann Joyce. Additional photos from this event can be seen here.
Read all of Depth of Field’s Comic Con 2011 Coverage here.