THIS ROLLING STONE JUST OPENED,
AND ALREADY IT’S GATHERING MOSS
If Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified were a device, it would be the BlackBerry of rock retrospectives. It is an earnest, well-meaning tribute to music by an iconic magazine but ultimately out of sync with the moment. It’s not immersive, not penetrating, and certainly not capable of channeling seven decades of cultural mayhem into 50 convoluted minutes.
Which begs the question: what is immersive, really? Is it 360-degree surround sound and retina-searing visuals? Is it a story you have to chase through dimly lit corridors where even the wallpaper is in character? Or is it just any old performance that dissolves the old proscenium divide between performer and spectator? I wish I had a definitive answer. But I can say with certainty: Amplified, which has these characteristics, is not it.
Housed at ARTECHOUSE NYC at Chelsea Market, the show is driven by a network of ceiling-mounted projectors and speakers rigged to a pipe grid, promising “spatial audio” and all the immersive trimmings. What we got instead felt like an extended reel for Rolling Stone, the magazine, as though you’d wandered into a corporate tent at a music festival. Even if they show over 1,000 photographs, 200 videos, 1,300 Rolling Stone covers, and over 300 artists!
The most jarring letdown? The sound. Ironically, for a show about music, this felt like the first thing they got wrong. Audio didn’t so much envelop the room as stumble through it. Kevin Bacon’s voice, tasked with narrating the arc of rock and roll, was more often a sonic ghost than a guiding voice. Sound waves collided in chaotic mumble or bounced off the walls until they reached your ears in a kind of confused echo. At times, you had ‘to squint with your ears’ just to understand him, sacrificing any chance of actually taking in the visuals dancing across the walls.
And all those visuals on the 270-degree, floor to ceiling 18K-resolution digital canvas, felt more algorithmic than meaningful, as if the show was curated by someone with access to Rolling Stone’s immense and remarkable image bank but had no roadmap. There was no rhythm, no story, at most a greatest-hits montage with no groove, just images and words chasing each other across the walls in a digital agitation. As a self-professed music nerd, I came hoping for goose bumps, epiphanies, maybe even a new discovery or two. Instead, I walked away with the distinct feeling that I’d just seen the trailer, not the movie.
photos by ATH Studio
Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience
ARTECHOUSE NYC, Chelsea Market, 439 W. 15th St
all shows are on the hour
Mondays: 12pm – 6pm
Tuesdays: Closed
Wednesdays: 12pm – 6pm
Thursdays: 12pm – 6pm
Fridays: 2pm – 8pm
Saturdays: 10am – 9pm
Sundays: 12pm – 6pm
(hours subject to change)
on sale through August, 2025
for tickets ($29-$39, plus fees) visit artechouse
Adapted by ARTECHOUSE Studio for the New York location, Amplified was originally produced by Illuminarium Experiences and created by Brand New World Studios in partnership with Rolling Stone. Brad Siegel and Rolling Stone veteran Jodi Peckman are Executive Producers. Peckman also serves as Photography and Film Curator. Meghan Benson is Director of Photography. Joe Levy is Executive Editor and Music Supervisor. Design and Visual Narrative are by Pentagram principals Abbott Miller and Emily Oberman. Motion Design is by Good Company. Sound Design is by Peter Lehman.
