WEIRD MUSIC NIGHT: THE ORIGIN STORY

Weird Music Night, curated and conceptualized by artist and professor John O’Donnell, emerged as a response to a need for creative freedom and experimentation in sound and performance art. The event is rooted in O’Donnell’s extensive experience as both a performer and a participant in international performance festivals, as well as his interest in fostering an experimental, collaborative space for artists and musicians.

“I started Weird Music Night after a transformative year of participating in festivals like PerForMIA 23 in Miami, the World Performance Forum in Chicago, and the Diverse Universe Performance Festival in Estonia,” O’Donnell explains. “At these events, I saw how live music and performance art could be reimagined when organized with intentionality and openness. I wanted to bring that energy back to New Haven and create a platform for artists to push boundaries and surprise themselves and their audiences.”

The origins of Weird Music Night are also deeply connected to O’Donnell’s reflections on the accessibility of performance art. “From my long history of organizing events, curating exhibitions, and sharing performances, I’ve learned that many people are turned off or hesitant to attend something labeled as ‘performance art,’” he shares. “It can be polarizing. I’ve seen people intentionally avoid it. If I wanted to share performance art, I knew I needed to create an entry point and establish a rhythm to keep visitors engaged.”

This realization inspired O’Donnell to broaden his focus beyond performance art in a traditional gallery setting. “I wanted something more expansive that could include puppetry and experimental music—fields I’ve been involved with for years but hadn’t fully recognized as interconnected. Over time, I realized they nested naturally with performance art under the umbrella of Weird Music Night.”

Weird Music Night draws inspiration from the underground movements of the 1980s, including the punk scenes of Chicago and New York, and the experimental ethos of Japanese noise music. O’Donnell was particularly influenced by interviews with Steve Albini, whose vivid recounting of the Chicago punk scene highlighted its diversity and the variety-show-style events that mixed performance art, music, comedy, and dance in unconventional spaces. These movements embraced diversity and chaos, blending performance art, puppetry, industrial music, comedy, and dance into variety-show-style events that thrived in unconventional venues like warehouses, alleyways, and abandoned spaces. “What I love about those early punk scenes is their unpredictability,” says O’Donnell. “You could walk into a show and see a noise act, a puppeteer, a dancer, and a comedy set all in the same night. That eclecticism is something I strive to replicate in Weird Music Night. It’s about creating moments of connection and meaning through intentional organization of chaos.”

The event also takes cues from the structure of a Puppet Slam—short, experimental performances that blend humor and thought-provoking content in a lively and informal setting. Weird Music Night’s format encourages collaboration across disciplines, fostering a space where musicians, visual artists, and performers can explore new ideas and approaches. “Weird Music Night is about making a vague promise concerning quality and skill,” O’Donnell notes. “It’s like saying, ‘Oh, sorry, it isn’t Great Music Night; it’s Weird Music Night.’ It’s also about using a broad concept like ‘music’ to hold performance, sound, and object in a new light. Everyone understands what music is, so it creates a basic entry point. Adding ‘weird’ permits all sorts of performance and sound-based potential.”

The inclusion of “Night” in the title is equally intentional. “It lets people know this is a contained experience,” O’Donnell explains. “It’s one night—come check it out. This format is also attractive to hosting art spaces because it’s a single evening program that can fit into any calendar. So, to any readers who want to host a Weird Music Night, get at me… after all, it’s only one night.”

Weird Music Night’s format encourages collaboration and experimentation while creating a space where failure is as valuable as success. O’Donnell concludes, “It’s about celebrating the unexpected and finding beauty in the chaos.”