MOMIX: Botanica (McCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ, April 25, 2013)

[ATTENDED: April 25, 2013] MOMIX Botancia

I didn’t realize that we attended a Momix show almost exactly one year ago.  But that’s when it was.  That show was called Remix, and it was a collection of great bits from Momix shows.  This year’s show, Botanica, is an older show and there were bits of it in Remix.  This gave me the most unique (for me) experience of seeing a dance troupe perform things that I had already seen!  What was fun was that the dancers were (I believe) different and, it felt like perhaps the pieces were performed a little bit differently too.

One of the fun things about the show was how the pieces segued into one another–most routines didn’t end so much as meld into the next one (and you can see how picking pieces out for a Greatest Hits might require some restructuring).

We saw this show at the McCarter Theatre, where, once again we had the $20 seats (knocked down to $18 with a AAA discount!).  For this show the seats were a bit of a hindrance because Momix is definitely about spectacle, and there were a few pieces where the spectacle was lost from our angle (which was a little below the stage and off to the right).  On the plus side, being able to see the dancers up close (we were literally three rows from the stage) brought a new level of experience to the show that you don’t get when the performers are interchangeable (hey, that’s the sweaty guy, that’s the blonde lady, that’s the guy with the amazing muscles).

The show opened with a waving sheet which looked like snow.  As the sheet began rippling dancers revealed themselves underneath and starting popping up, like flowers or dolphins or gravity defying skiers.  It was very cool.   Then a giant flower-like item came out on stage and women danced around it.  There followed a wonderful sequence with black light paint as three performers with neon arms and legs made wonderful shapes–animals, faces, bodies–using their limbs.  Our cheap seats hindered this piece somewhat.

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Robert Leonard Reid–”That Doubling is Always Observed” (Harper’s, February 2013)

SOUNDTRACK: TRENCHMOUTH-More Motion: A Collection (2003).

Seven years after they broke up, a Trenchmouth compilation was released.  Does a band with four albums, no chance of hits and a bizarre evolution of sound warrant a collection?  Well, in that most of their discs are out of print?  Yes.  In that Fred Armisen has become more and more famous and people might be curious what his band sounded like? Sure.

The fact that there are a few rare songs is a nice feature, although again, most of these albums are hard to find anyhow, so they’re almost all rare.  But what this disc really shows is the fascinating evolution of the band from noisy punks to smooth dubsteppers.  I have two of their albums and that progression is not really clear, but hearing them all laid out in chronological fashion it all becomes apparent.

The early songs are noisy and  jittery–the kind of songs that they would perfect on their second album, they’re just not quite as screamy.  As if they haven’t quite pushed the envelope far enough.  ”Making Money for the Freak Machine” comes from an early 7″.  The song is challenging because of several abrupt halts–the song sounds like it ends but then after a longer than expected pause it resumes with a bass heavy reintroduction.  ”Gold” and “The Volcanic Action of My Soul” show the kind of music they would be known for–bass heavy, noisy guitars and chanted choruses.  ”Volcanic” in particular rocks hard (and the chorus is great).  Armisen’s drumming is great too.

The bulk of the songs of the collection come from Inside the Future and they are really a highlight.   They sound great in this context, too.  There’s also five songs from Vs the Light of the Sun.  Hearing the music chronologically like this, you can hear that the band is moving away from the frenetic punk and into a more dub style.  Although there’s still a lot of noise and noodly guitar solos and such.

By the last four songs, the dubstep version of Trenchmouth is fully in play.  The jangling wild guitar solos have been replaced by subtle echoing guitar notes.  The bass is as wild as ever, but the pace is slower  The instrumental ”Contrast Beneath the Surface  is downright mellow–things seem calmer without Damon Locks sing/screaming).  The final song is live and the audience really responds.

The switch to the dub sound is an interesting choice–possibly a chance to make more money although it seems like jumping from an unpopular niche to a more unpopular niche.  Did their later live shows have both sides of the band?  That would be crazy.  Nevertheless, this is a good collection of songs from an underrated and really, unknown band.

[READ: February 5, 2013] ”That Doubling is Always Observed”

I don’t know Robert Leonard Reid.  And I don’t understand this story at all.  I don’t even really understand this type of story–it is a very detailed history of a fictional thing.  It’s not so much a story as a historical background–told in sections that sound very formal and official.

The story is about the kupuestra which appears to be some kind of un-sensual dance.  Reid devotes many paragraphs to explaining this “dance” and its unsensual nature.

Edward Vekner was the father of the kupuestra, although that seems to have been accidental–his heart attack appears to have inspired others to emulate his moments.  There’s also someone named Lop, a woman who sank into the kupuestra (which means she was very good at it).  Lop was brittle like a cracker and the color of bacon grease–in other words, perfect.

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Heather O’Neill–”And They Danced by the Light of the Moon” (The Walrus, July/August 2012)

SOUNDTRACK: K’NAAN-”Wavin’ Flag” (2009).

Like most people in America I don’t know much about K’naan.  This is despite the fact that this song (in a modified form) was the anthem for Coca-Cola and the 2010 World Cup and was HUGE (except in America where we like one and ignore the other).  There’s an article about K’naan in the July/August issue of The Walrus.  He is a Somali-born Canadian rapper and he is looking to break into the US market.

And that’s as much as I knew of him.  So imagine my surprise upon listening to this song to realize that it is an acoustic-pop song not unlike Coldplay (lots of Whoa-ohs) set to a martial beat.

It’s a catchy anthem indeed–made perfect for an event with lots of waving flags like the World Cup.  However, the original lyrics are impressive (and talk obliquely about his life in Somalia).

Out of the darkness, I came the farthest Among the hardest survival
Learn from these streets, it can be bleak Accept no defeat, surrender, retreat

So many wars, settling scores Bringing us promises, leaving us poor
I heard them say ‘love is the way’ ‘Love is the answer,’ that’s what they say

And yet the chorus is pretty uplifting:

When I get older I will be stronger They’ll call me freedom just like a wavin’ flag And then it goes back, and then it goes back And then it goes back, oh

Chorus aside, these lyrics aren’t exactly going to sell product, so it’s not surprising that the Coca Cola Celebration Remix has changed some lyrics:

Saying forever young Singing songs underneath the sun Let’s rejoice in the beautiful game
And together at the end of the day, we all say

Although this lyric could have been in either version

In the streets our heads are liftin’ As we lose our inhibition
Celebration, it surrounds us Every nation, all around us

And the chorus remains the same.

The remix is a bit more interesting musically.  The original is just him on an acoustic guitar with some drums.  It reminds me of Bob Marley (and references “Buffalo Soldier”).  The remix has a really cool drum intro.  It’s beefed up throughout as well.  I guess it’s easy to say it’s a sell out (but well, duh), but it’s still as catchy as the original without being too obnoxiously overproduced.  And heck, maybe people learned a bit about Somalia from it.  Stranger things have happened.

[READ: July 4, 2012] “And They Danced by the Light of the Moon”

Some stories are one thing at heart.  No matter how much you gussy them up and make them look all fancy, they’re always going to have heavy metal T-shirts under their formal wear (I should know).

And so it with this story set in the 70s in the Quebec town of Val de Loups (the fact that it is set here changes enough of the story that although the story is not atypical, it is at least in an unfamiliar setting (to me)).  Jules knows that he is in love with Manon.  Manon doesn’t know anything about love.  Jules is an only child, living in a trailer park, trying not to get beaten by his father. Manon is the youngest of 11 children (her mother kept trying until she had a girl).  She is beautiful with golden ringlets and a magical laugh and she is under the constant supervision and protection of her ten massive brothers (one is a wrestler, three work in the mines).

Jules is an intelligent boy who always gets in trouble.  He’s a class clown because he likes it when people pay attention to him, although he doesn’t really have any friends per se (when he gets in trouble, they aren’t there with him).  His last prank was an invitation to the aliens–spray painted in the school parking lot.  This gets him kicked out of the upcoming dance (even though he did a lot of the getting it setup).  He’s really bummed because Manon said she’d go with him.  Manon likes him because of the way he can roller skate.

Despite not being allowed into the dance, they meet up outside the building and go to a house in town where Jules is plant-sitting.  With the right music, the right lighting, the right setting, this would be a joyous romp of explored sexuality and post-dance bliss.  But this is Val de Loups, where no one leaves, where everyone is trapped.

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Out of This World (J.P. Case Middle School, Flemington, NJ May 29, 2012)

[ATTENDED May 19, 2012] Out of This World

My four-year old daughter Tabitha was in her first recital last night.  Of all of the shows that our family has attended over the last few months, none has been as full of emotional highs and lows, laughter, shock and cuteness as this one.

None.

Not bad for two minutes of a song called “Disco Galaxy.”

I have no intention of critiquing any performances on the stage tonight.  Every girl and boy tried his or her best and they all did better than I could do.  However, since this is my first amateur performance that I’ve seen as an adult, I want to make some general observations about on-stage performance.

TV shows and movies about performance always talk about basic rules for being on stage: SMILE SMILE SMILE!  Smiling on stage and exaggerating your movements and crazy makeup are all essential.  It actually gets a bit tedious (as I’m sure it does for the performers).

So based on TV and my recent live experiences I’ve taken some notes:

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Archie Meets Kiss [#629] 3 of 4 (2012)

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-”Rock and Roll All Nite” (on Dancing with the Stars April 9, 2012).

When I decided to write this post, I thought about how weird it was that Kiss did an Archie comic.  And then I remembered that Kiss performed on Dancing with the Stars, which may be the weirdest sell-out thing I’ve ever heard.  [Realistically it is impossible for Kiss to sell-out any further I realize].  The only thing crazier is that they had men and women dressed in Kiss make up doing some crazy dance routine to the spectacle.

The fact that Gene screws up the lyrics in the first verse…to one of the most well-known songs possibly ever is even more unfathomable.

The band sounds good though, and I’m pretty excited to see them live this Fall.

But boy I hope they don’t have these dancers on stage:

[READ: May 9, 2012] Archie Meets Kiss

For my birthday, Sarah bought me this comic (we were in the store for Free Comic Book day and she found it in a box).  This is number 3 in the 4 part series.  She didn’t know that and I didn’t know it until I was about 2/3 of the way through the book.  (I’m surprised it doesn’t say so on the cover).  Knowing that it’s Part 3 makes the opening of the story seem more sensible, since it starts in the middle:

Archie is a zombie, Sabrina the Teenage Witch is helping them out and Kiss come through a portal to the rescue.  Talk about lack of exposition!

When I saw this crossover event was coming, it made me smile.  Kiss has sold out in so many bizarre ways that appearing on Archie hardly seems weird at all.  What does seem weird to me is how underutilized Kiss are as characters.  Kiss has been in comics before, they have had several of their own series, each more disturbing  than the last.  And, if you even go as far back as Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, the guys each have their own “speaking” personality.  Yes, I know that the characters are personalities as well, but I’m just talking about dialogue here.  And that’s where this book fails.  

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MOMIX Remix (The State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ, April 20, 2012)

[ATTENDED, April 20, 2012] MOMIX Remix

One of Sarah’s surprises for her birthday was that after an evening of fine dining at The Frog and the Peach, I had gotten us tickets to Momix.  This was a total surprise because neither one of us had ever heard of Momix.  I wanted to so something fun for us, and this show was being performed on her birthday weekend.  The write-up at the State Theater made Momix seem weird, interesting and very cool.  So, even though we’d never heard of them, it seemed worth the risk.

A rose waited for us at our seats (A date night package for us).  The curtain went up and the music started and we were blown away from that moment on.

We decided the best description of Momix is as kind of dancey version of the Peking Acrobats (they do show up a lot in my posts).  I’ve never really seen modern dance on any grand scale, so I hesitate to call this modern dance, but what else can it be?  The music (none of it original) was primarily world/ambient (Dead Can Dance was a band I recognized).   And the men and women of the troupe performed nontraditional dances to it.

Okay, but what’s this about acrobats?

Well, the dances were more about showcasing the body–in its beauty, in its strength and in its grace.  And it was amazing to watch. Our favorite piece, called “Tuu,” featured a man and a woman.  She began the dance wrapped around his neck (by her knee?!) and proceeded to uncurl herself into amazing positions, all while he himself balanced and did wonderfully graceful moves.  And here’s the difference between a dancer and an acrobats–these dancers never wavered, never wiggled, never seemed for a second that they were uncomfortable–they were beyond graceful.  So at one point when he did a hand stand and she id a handstand on his back, it was fluid and amazing.  I mean, look at that picture.

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