The Next Song is a series of “concert events” that investigate everything that happens in-between songs at a concert. They were first staged in the context of our performative installation with g.a.d.o. Just Wait Another Million Years and invited to Frankfurt Lab - Festival 2024 half a year later. Each show had a different concept, each springing from our shared realisation that when we describe our most fond concert memories we tend to focus on everything outside of the music itself, what the musicians said, how they attempted to connect with the audience, how the audience behaved, what the stage was like etc.

Each performance of The Next Song presents an entirely new version. So far we have made an event based on a story about Nina Simone’s Gum and planned a reunion concert (together with all the audience members) in 16 years time, taking the chance to also rehearse our eulogies for anyone and everyone who might not still be around then; learned how to surf without ever entering the water, organised a tour of a natural history museum to learn about the world 1 million years ago and in the future; and talked to (and sang together with) the audience as we presented one hour of material about everything we love and/or want to complain about. For The Next Song at Frankfurt Lab - Festival we made another long-held dream come to life. We created a system for a concert where the audience could become Tedious Work’s live performers without Paul & Leander who meanwhile could rather be in Mexico.

These are the invitations to the different versions of The Next Song:

Version 1, Friday 19.04.2024 19:00-20:00 (childcare available - please register at tediouswork@liebt-dich.info) 

In the first performance of The Next Song we’ll play a one-song-concert together (no musical knowledge necessary) and make a pact to stage our song again in 16 years’ time. Also you’ll have the unique opportunity to experience the eulogy that will be performed in your memory, if you should pass away before 2040.

Version 2, Saturday 20.04.2024 15:00-17:30 (family-friendly performance) 

In order to be better prepared for thinking about our concert in a million years‘ time, on Saturday we’ll learn about how our planet sounded a million years ago and what is still left from this time. For that we’ll make an excursion together and get an exclusive tour. Our trip starts from the entry of the exhibition, at Berliner Straße 27. (On this day, the exhibition itself is only open after the excursion.)

Version 3, Wednesday 24.04.2024 19:00-20:00 (family-friendly performance) 

What will the world be like in one million years, when our okay concert is going to take place? Our assumption: Lots of water. Which cultural techniques could help us to think about the concert on such a planet? For Wednesday’s Next Song we’ve invited a surfing-coach to give us a dry crash course in her discipline.

Version 4, Thursday 25.04.2024 19:00-20:00 (childcare available - please register at tediouswork@liebt-dich.info) 

In our final show of The Next Song Paul & Leander have prepared a new one-hour-song for you. It will be about everything that we’ve always wanted to mention in-between-songs and have never been able to, yet.

Version 5, Saturday 12.10.2024 21:00-22:00

THE NEXT SONG is a series of happenings about everything that happens in-between songs at a live show.

 Tedious Work are the fastest growing and largest participatory stadium band in the world.* Their collective music practice, formed of the pasts and futures of our common mind, is an indefinable rollercoaster ride through game playing, work, singing, theft, failing, performance art, improbability, labour, pop and sports.



To get you in the mood, we have invited the exceptional performance artist Tanna Chamberlain from the UK with her work A 33 Year Old Woman Crashes Repeatedly into the End of a Flying Fox in Office Attire as our support act. 

Tedious Work are always looking for new members, but in the spirit of New Orleans brass bands – most of the time not all of them show up.
 
We hope YOU want to be part of the band, no musical training or ability required, just a willingness to talk or simply to listen.

 So come and join Tedious Work for this concert of in-between speaking.

*probably

The previous research and development of THE NEXT SONG was supported by “Das fliegende Künstlerzimmer”, a programme by Crespo Foundation, in cooperation with the Hessisches Ministerium für Kultus, Bildung und Chancen and the Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung, Kunst und Kultur in the context of the exhibition “Just Wait Another Million Years” in collaboration with g.a.d.o. (great artists doing okay).

Supported by the Culture Department of the city of Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

The performance at F°LAB Festival was coproduced by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Frankfurt LAB.