And now for something completely different…
Yes, it felt a bit like Monty Python the other night at 123 Pleasant Street. A friend from Maryland was visiting me for a few days and we decided to check out some activity in Mo-town. We saw a poster at the Blue Moose of a band (picture at left) that was in town and we decided to check them out. They were the Asylum Street Spankers. You’d think that someone smashed together a bluegrass band with the remnants of a defunct punk group.
This group was different. Try to classify them and you are left shaking your head since they were able to mix and match all sorts of musical genres: country-western, alternative, modern pop, 1920s and ragtime, swing and jazz, even a bit of rap.
The flyer said that this group was “irreverent”. True enough, this performance is not for youngsters or for anyone who can’t stomach some dock-workers’ poetry. (Hmm…, I saw another friend of mine from church there. Then again, he saw me there, too. Hmm. But we’re Episcopalians and we are everywhere. But so are Roman Catholics.) After one of their tunes, one band member said, “and that was Sick!” He was actually introducing another member named…, Sick (the guy with the mohawk).
Nonetheless, I found them to be entertaining. At times during a song in a 1920’s style about a body decaying in the ocean, I imagined those Edward Gorey drawings of (PBS’ Mystery) dancing around in some weird beach setting. Another musical entity was “where country-western murder meets gangsta-rap”. Sometimes I couldn’t help but to think that Dr. Demento would love some of this. Sure enough, one of their songs, “Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your S.U.V.” (sung to the tune of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old Oak Tree”) is currently #5 on the Doctor’s Top Funny Five List!
More importantly, they were tight, talented and versatile. At the end of the performance there were piles of instruments on and in front of the stage. They played them all and they played them well–add to that their vocal abilities and harmonies.
I almost felt the need to go to confession after it was over though. (Yes, we Episcopals have that, but not as a sacrament). The performance really was something completely different. My buddy and I had a good time although we were more in a mood for some loud rock.
Check out their blog on MySpace—they have some streaming audio samples there, but again, they’re not for all audiences to say the least.
http://www.myspace.com/asylumstreetspankers
