Above: The dancers from the Etre Art performance Thursday at 412-A Delaware. They'll be back Friday at 11 p.m. and Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
The band that christened this year's Fringe Festival, BCR, is as mirthful as any, but it isn't your typical happy hour band. When Sun Ra and terms like "astra" and "cosmic" get at what your music sounds like, you're probably served best after dusk, if not late at night.That could explain the light turnout for its 6:30 p.m. show Thursday at the spartan and un-named (and for-rent) space a 7 E. 19th St (cater-corner from Michael's clothing store).
(For video footage of Thursday performances, visit KansasCity.com.)
Above: Dwight Frizzell and Thomas Aber of BCR.
BCR is as out on the fringe as any act in the festival, yet it's charms and virtues are simple and irresistible: Have fun and swing.
For this performance, BCR was stripped down to a quintet: the Rev. Dwight Frizzell (sax), Thomas Aber (reeds), Mark Thies (bass, vocals), Julia Thro (guitar) and guest drummer Duck McClane.They played some Sun Ra ("The Satellites Are Spinning") and some originals ("Space Junk" was great; "Goddesses" was fun). BCR's template is "cosmic jazz," but it plays heavily with funk, rock, pop and world music. "Goddesses" sounded at times like "The Theme to the Pink Panther" turned sideways and inside-out. Other numbers invoked the sound and/or spirits of David Byrne, Frank Zappa and, obviously, Ra himself. They'll be back at the same site Friday at 9:30 p.m., when the other sun is long-gone.
The best thing about festivals like this is how many options there are. The bad thing: When something starts or runs late, it can throw off your schedule. The Etre Art performance at 412-A Delaware (the courtyard north of the former Cup & Saucer) was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. However, the percussionists in the band performed at a 6:30 gig; they couldn't make it to the Etre show and get set up until after 8:30 p.m.
Above: She's not escaping, she's dancing, part of Etre Art.
Thanks to the surroundings and the weather, the wait was pleasant, but the delay threw a kink in the rest of the night's schedule (mine anyway: no Kevin Hiatt). Etre Art is a mix of music, dance and theater. The music is a mix of classical, various shades of jazz and rock accented with electronic loops and flourishes, and plenty of percussion. The dancers incorporate the architecture around them into their performances, especially the fire escape on the building's north side. The courtyard is small, so it's very intimate (ask the woman who involuntarily became part of the "frog-mime" piece).
Over at the Delaware Courtyard, "Fringe Festival: Secrets," a fashion show with music was set to begin at 9:30 p.m. Contrary to what I was told, no live band was scheduled for this evening (the Beautiful Bodies perform Saturday). The PA system played Morphine songs for a long time, which was great. But nothing else happened. For a long time. A little before 10:30 p.m., I went down the street to 500 Delaware, to try to catch the end of singer Penny Olivier, hoping that venue was off-schedule, too. It wasn't. She was nearly done. So I saved my $5 and headed for the last late-night show, at Bohemian Gallery, where Bacon Shake was presenting its funny/goofy/witty take on the history of theater. There was no music per se, except for the part where Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway do a little Fergie. You had to be there. And you can: They'll be back at 10 p.m. Friday.
| Timothy Finn, The Star
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Posted by: mulberry bags | November 26, 2011 at 08:04 AM