New York based rock band Atomic Tom uploaded a YouTube video of the group playing the song “Take Me Out” using only iPhone and instrument apps.
Shot on the New York city subway as it crossed the Manhattan Bridge, the video starts off with a title explaining that “In October 2010, New York’s Atomic Tom had their instruments stolen” before opening with vocals and a spare set of iPhone-powered piano notes.
“Fortunately,” the video says, “they know how to improvise” before launching into an rock ballad that manages to get some of the fellow public transport users nodding their heads and tapping their feet, even if an older gentlemen directly behind singer Luke White fails to be impressed.
In the space of a week the video has been watched over 2.5 million times with enthusiastic comments from hard-to-please YouTube users such as “excellent!”, “this is pure amazing” and “I want an iPhone now.”
In the video the singer Luke White singes into an iPhone like a microphone while string players Philip Galitzine on bass and Eric Espiritu on guitar strum away at the touch screens on their iPhones and Tobias Smith raps out percussion in a drum application.
The band has been surprised by the success of the video with their album and single flying up the iTunes charts into the realms of big label acts. It’s an impressive effort and whether or not the music is to your taste, you can’t help but admire the youthful energy a hand full of smartphones in the hands of a talented group of musicians managed to bring to a clattering New York subway train.