Moritz Simon Geist @ Slingshot Festival 2024
Moritz Simon Geist @ Slingshot Festival 2024 at The Fruit in Durham, NC
A little over *triple checks notes* six years ago, I came to know of German techno tinkerer Moritz Simon Geist when he shared his piece, “Entropy”. Ever since I came to know of Moritz, I have daydreamed of the day that I would get to experience the magic of what he does in person. Since I left New York, I had sort of surrendered to the assumption that I would have to travel across an ocean or, at minimum, out of state to get to see him perform. By some miracle, however, he made it onto the lineup for this year’s Slingshot Festival at The Fruit in Durham.
It’s extra cool going to shows now because after covid I’ve really been making an effort to be more present with each experience by choosing to be soberish when I’m out. I know y’all are sick of me asking if you’re meditating, but I can tell you that’s also helped me be more mindful of things like being on my phone unnecessarily while someone is playing. That said, I noticed how hard it was not to want to take a billion pictures and videos of what was happening before my eyes. There was a distinct moment where I remember confirming that whatever I attempted to capture of the show would have to be it because I didn’t want to take my attention off of what was happening any longer than I had to, shoving my phone in my pocket, and then just proceeded to bask in the bliss of it all. I gotta keep it 💯 with you, it was so deeply inspiring standing in a room full of people I didn’t know who were all losing their minds as they watched an artist and his makeshift robot play us some really fucking sick music.
I mean just look at the way this little angel delicately manipulates his machine:
The best part of the experience by far was that you could tell he was absolutely having the time of his life getting to live his life in his full authenticity. A life full of playfulness, creativity, precision, and JOY. My goddess, I was grinning ear to ear the whole time at the ever-present thought of getting to bear witness to this little miracle of an experiment that happened to land 30 minutes outside of where I landed after a global pandemic on the weekend where I was feeling really eager to relaunch the new vision of this space but wasn’t sure how I’d get started.
I’d already had a pretty awesome day prior to stepping inside The Fruit. I knew I was going to be excited to, at last, get the opportunity to share space with him. Even still, it felt pretty surreal to be standing next to him fishing some This Machine Slays Fascism stickers out of my bag as I listened to a sea of attendees excitedly gushing to him things like that him and his less than usual setup (as some luggage got left in New York) was the coolest thing they’d ever seen in their collective lives. I mean, when you think about it, a guy who gets flown all over the world to be part of the performance art-tech scene being in a place like The Fruit in October 2024, with us all knowing the extent of the devastation that’s happened in this state in the last few weeks, is a such a divinely timed little glimmer of hope. It’s the kind of thing that should make everyone believe in miracles, imo.
And yes, that’s probably a dramatic thing of me to say, but it really felt like this man was as excited to play for us as I was to finally see him after all this time, and it really made the energy in the room feel so great. I mean look at this guy living it up just being a lil goofball:
During my afternoon social media check-in, I noticed he posted a video about how cool the energy was last night during his performance.
courtesy of Mortiz Simon Geist on Instagram
Mortiz, I’m not exactly sure how you landed here either, but, my dude, I am so incredibly grateful that you went with it. Can’t wait until I get to see another one!
If you happen to live in the following markets, this is where the lucky few in these United States are able to catch him this time through:
