Mutaytor. Cirque Berzerk. Les Claypool - 3/7

[Not Afraid]

It was a good show, but a bit uneven.

In attendance - CM, Borneio, EH, NM, Euro and I.

It started out great with the Yard Dogs Road Show - a vaudevillian music, burlesque and freak show act. They were highly entertaining, played fun music, had good freaks and tap dancing accordion players.

Next up was Saul Williams - well respected Slam poet and prodigy of Trent Reznor. Seemed like good credentials but the set was AWFUL! "Alternative Hip Hop" may just not be my things, but I found nothing redeming about their performance.

The Muytator apparently didn't do their usual full show, but it was still entertaining. Not as "artistic" as a Lucent show but having a good live band backing up the fire poi dancers, airalists and other tricksters was wonderful. The fun part for me was seeing one of the dancers that I knew from a Lucent event and discovering that the bass player has done a lot of work with another friend of mine - Anna Homler. I'd still like to see a full show.

Les Claypool was interesting. His band consisted of entirerly rythm instruments (Bass, Drums, Other percussion and Vibes, and Amplified Cello) with the cello carrying being used in a very guitar-sounding way to somewhat carry the melody. Claypool is a phemonimal bass player and the jazz/funk based rythms were great but I found the music started seeming repetative as the show went on. His vocals and lyrics were a bit Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa (and sounded like Stan Ridgway at times) and he used various mics with filters for different effects. Some friends showed up at the end (all playing bass) including Lonnie Marshall from the local band Weapon of Choice and Eugene Hutz from Bogol Bordello (swoon). Eugene - that boy just lights up the stage!

Music was interspersed with freak show numbers from Cirque Birzerk.

The event was titled the Odity Fair and was a Claypool creation. Maybe I'm just used to odd, but I didn't find much that was terribly odd about the show (even with Claypool donned at pig mask a la Peter Coyote in Polanski's Bitter Moon). I did love the victorian-inspired artwork that provided the background for Claypool (which is also the cover of Claypool's new album).

About the only real odd part of the night were the old Primus fans who had quite the mosh pit going. I'm not sure I've ever experienced moshing to jazz/funk rythms and some kick-ass vibe playing.