Smatter.mem x What Cheer?

A memory of elated frenzy in a dearly departed Richmond venue.

What Cheer? Brigade at Strange Matter, an ANIMAL RVA event circa August 2016. facebook.com/events/564355483689654/

The air conditioner at Smatter was broken - and it was the peak of the heat of a sweaty Richmond summer. What Cheer? eschewed the stage and played on the floor amongst us. As the frenzy built, we were lead to form a line, running in circles, holding each other and running under the bass drum, held aloft while being beaten, over and over and over again. Frenetic confusion as we became dizzy running in circles, dehydrated and drunk and overheated in a sea of shrill brass cacophony.

I capture things the way I remember them: non-linear time in blurs of intense kinetic energy, sound, and emotion.

Captured here: Elation Frenzy Abandon Derealization Dizziness

Wesley McQuillen