The Best Thing Ever is a
punk band/performance art group formed by autistic singer/songwriter
Noah Britton in the summer of 2003. The label "punk" is adequate to describe the band's influences and ethics, but the sound that they exhibited changed drastically from show to show.
Biography
The Best Thing Ever's original lineup consisted of
Noah Britton,
Alex Billig, Jennifer Page, and Emilyn Brodsky. Although the band officially consisted of four people, they played in various incarnations. Britton was the only constant member.
Brodsky landed the band big gigs opening for such acts as
The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer (lead vocals and piano; additional: keyboards, harmonica, ukulele) and Brian Viglione (drums and backing vocals; ad ...
,
The World/Inferno Friendship Society
The World/Inferno Friendship Society (also referred to as World Inferno, or Inferno) was an American band from Brooklyn, New York. Its style merged punk, soul, klezmer and jazz, while its collective membership featured horns, piano and guitar ...
, and
The Gossip
Gossip (or The Gossip) was an American indie rock band formed in Searcy, Arkansas, originally active from 1999 until 2016. For most of their career, the band consisted of singer Beth Ditto, multi-instrumentalist Brace Paine, and drummer Hannah ...
, but when she was offered a spot opening for
the Magnetic Fields
The Magnetic Fields (named after the André Breton/Philippe Soupault novel ''Les Champs Magnétiques'') are an American Band (rock and pop), band founded and led by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocali ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
(NYU), she decided to leave The Best Thing Ever to make it on her own.
On May 1, 2006, Britton, Billig, and Page officially revived The Best Thing Ever moniker before embarking on The Bathroom Tour. For twelve straight days, The Best Thing Ever invaded bathrooms across
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
to perform their music for unsuspecting audiences.
The ''Bathroom Tour'' DVD, which documents the events of the tour, was released in April 2007. Part of it was filmed by
Josh Safdie.
In the summer of 2007, the band reunited fo
The Surprise Tour playing exclusively unbooked shows all over the country with acts including
Andrew Bird and
Gravy Train!!!!. Venues included the
Kansas Barbed Wire Museum
The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum is a barbed wire museum located in La Crosse, Kansas, United States, known as the “Barbed Wire Capital of the World.” The museum focuses on barbed wire and its history, displaying over 2,000 different forms of th ...
, the
Mall of America
Mall of America (MOA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway ...
,
Corn Palace, and
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
, where they put up their own exhibit as inductees for the class of 2007. A film documenting the tour was released on April 1, 2011, edited by
Benny Safdie.
During the last week of June 2008, the band went on what they claimed would be their last tour
The Retirement Tour a tour of retirement-related venues. However, in April, 2009, they played a surprise show at a donut shop in Allston, Massachusetts. They now claim that The Retirement Tour never happened, and that they will continue to perform occasionally.
In February 2010, the band went on The Animals Tour, performing exclusively for animals in the New York City area, including surprise shows at a zoo and an aquarium, and a booked show at a dog shelter, which was filmed and edited by
Benny Safdie.
On April 1, 2011, The Best Thing Ever premiered The Surprise Tour DVD at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, NY. They decided to only screen this film every April 1 in a different state, and continue to do so annually.
Filmography
DVDs
References
External links
Tiny Mix Tapes interviewOfficial Band Website"Why I Write" inspired by TBTEDay 1 of The Bathroom Tour on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best Thing Ever, The
Punk rock groups from Massachusetts