Yard Dogs Road Show - 9/12 @ Variety Playhouse
Jinkees.
Here's another one I almost completely forgot to write about. So let me knock it out as best I can.
This was one of the shows I was looking forward to this month as I've seen Yard Dogs Road Show a couple of times before and quite enjoyed their particular brand of spectacle. And as I tried to share my excitement about the show with other people, I realized how little I was able to properly describe it. "It's like old timey vaudeville and burlesque with torch songs" or "Think of dustbowl era Carnivale characters in a band" or "They do fire eating, juggling and sword swallowing and stripteases and such" or simply, "It's fun." All do describe their performance, but it doesn't quite encapsulate what they do so well. So I stole this from their website - "The Yard Dogs Road Show is a hobo cabaret, a living patchwork of vaudeville and rock and roll. They lead the modern hobohemian on a visual and sonic journey through part of history that may or may not have existed." That does sound better, although not a description I'll likely keep on the tip of the tongue for the next time they travel through town.
Either way, I was on board for going to the show and I knew Chris was as well. I convinced Rikki to go and Chris brought along Cathleen. And we were probably the four most normal people in the building. Since their popularity has grown in the underground artsy/hippie/outsider community, there are even more characters in the audience than onstage. It's well beyond the typical "let's get dressed up like the band" kind of mentality, as opposed to an odd symbiotic co-dependency betwixt the audience and the band, as if neither would truly exist without the other on a whole existential level. The closest I've personally seen it with any other band would be the Dresden Dolls. I imagine that the Grateful Dead were along the same lines, but since I can't stand that jam band, hippie crap, I refused to ever see them to know for sure. It's kind of freaky in a "one of us" kind of way (and I realize I've used a lot of quotation marks in this articular recap, but since this has been my first parenthetical aside, my recurring grammatical norm, I'm sure you'll forgive me).
Anyway, as I seem to be losing the thread of the whole interdependency between band and audience into psychobabble that even I don't quite follow anymore, let me get back to the show. They started things off with a performance by the Indigo Bellydancers, which are also the Black & Blue Burlesque troupe. The bellydancing was cool, but Rikki made a good point that it went on way too long. But it seemed a good 1/3 of the audience WERE bellydancers, so I'm sure they would argue otherwise. Then after a rather long extended break (where I believe the band was waiting for mind altering substances to take effect), the Yard Dogs Road Show finally commenced. And once again, I quite enjoyed their odd mix of music and theatrics. They've definitely changed the show up some from last time I saw them, as they didn't do some of the things I sold Rikki on, like fire eating and juggling, but they did have sword swallowing, so wasn't too far off. Guess they've been mixing things up a bit to keep things interesting for both themselves as well as the audience.
So after the show, waited for the crowd to disperse before leaving and that allowed Rikki and I to meet back up with Chris and Cathleen (as they had made their way as close to the stage as possible, whereas Rikki and I were happy to stay towards the outer rim). Took a quick look at their merch on the way out, or looked at it as best I could through the throngs of people trying to buy stuff, and am still surprised they don't have a DVD for sale. Sure their music is kind of cool and all, but it's so much better if you have the visual element as well. Sort of like the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players, it's not as exciting if you don't have all the pieces in place. Guess I'll just keep seeing them live then, as that seems to be working fine for me. But a DVD would be cool too, then I won't have to feel peer pressure for not wearing a top hat or a bunch of scarves.
Here's another one I almost completely forgot to write about. So let me knock it out as best I can.
This was one of the shows I was looking forward to this month as I've seen Yard Dogs Road Show a couple of times before and quite enjoyed their particular brand of spectacle. And as I tried to share my excitement about the show with other people, I realized how little I was able to properly describe it. "It's like old timey vaudeville and burlesque with torch songs" or "Think of dustbowl era Carnivale characters in a band" or "They do fire eating, juggling and sword swallowing and stripteases and such" or simply, "It's fun." All do describe their performance, but it doesn't quite encapsulate what they do so well. So I stole this from their website - "The Yard Dogs Road Show is a hobo cabaret, a living patchwork of vaudeville and rock and roll. They lead the modern hobohemian on a visual and sonic journey through part of history that may or may not have existed." That does sound better, although not a description I'll likely keep on the tip of the tongue for the next time they travel through town.
Either way, I was on board for going to the show and I knew Chris was as well. I convinced Rikki to go and Chris brought along Cathleen. And we were probably the four most normal people in the building. Since their popularity has grown in the underground artsy/hippie/outsider community, there are even more characters in the audience than onstage. It's well beyond the typical "let's get dressed up like the band" kind of mentality, as opposed to an odd symbiotic co-dependency betwixt the audience and the band, as if neither would truly exist without the other on a whole existential level. The closest I've personally seen it with any other band would be the Dresden Dolls. I imagine that the Grateful Dead were along the same lines, but since I can't stand that jam band, hippie crap, I refused to ever see them to know for sure. It's kind of freaky in a "one of us" kind of way (and I realize I've used a lot of quotation marks in this articular recap, but since this has been my first parenthetical aside, my recurring grammatical norm, I'm sure you'll forgive me).
Anyway, as I seem to be losing the thread of the whole interdependency between band and audience into psychobabble that even I don't quite follow anymore, let me get back to the show. They started things off with a performance by the Indigo Bellydancers, which are also the Black & Blue Burlesque troupe. The bellydancing was cool, but Rikki made a good point that it went on way too long. But it seemed a good 1/3 of the audience WERE bellydancers, so I'm sure they would argue otherwise. Then after a rather long extended break (where I believe the band was waiting for mind altering substances to take effect), the Yard Dogs Road Show finally commenced. And once again, I quite enjoyed their odd mix of music and theatrics. They've definitely changed the show up some from last time I saw them, as they didn't do some of the things I sold Rikki on, like fire eating and juggling, but they did have sword swallowing, so wasn't too far off. Guess they've been mixing things up a bit to keep things interesting for both themselves as well as the audience.
So after the show, waited for the crowd to disperse before leaving and that allowed Rikki and I to meet back up with Chris and Cathleen (as they had made their way as close to the stage as possible, whereas Rikki and I were happy to stay towards the outer rim). Took a quick look at their merch on the way out, or looked at it as best I could through the throngs of people trying to buy stuff, and am still surprised they don't have a DVD for sale. Sure their music is kind of cool and all, but it's so much better if you have the visual element as well. Sort of like the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players, it's not as exciting if you don't have all the pieces in place. Guess I'll just keep seeing them live then, as that seems to be working fine for me. But a DVD would be cool too, then I won't have to feel peer pressure for not wearing a top hat or a bunch of scarves.