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Archive: September, 2012
Charlie Miller says he’s tired. No wonder. Four years ago he was the mastermind of a folk-for-Obama fundraiser that produced $4K for the campaign.
"It was a lot of work to do in one night with multiple bands,” says Miller. “Since then the house concert movement has really been growing with a number of artists making a comfortable living at it, so we decided to give that a try."
“We” being Miller and Jefferson Berry. Last night was Miller's turn to host. "We had 40 people, two bands, [JB's] Urban Acoustic Coalition and Boris Garcia, plus Shelly Quigley sang some of her parodies. It went till 11 and we raised $1400."
There are four more intimate shows coming up. In the name of community-building, these fundraisers are all also pot luck meals about an prior to the music. But you can feel free to come just for music if you prefer. Tonight Psych-A-Billy and Hippies and Hillbillies hold forth in Hollywood, PA, at 7 p.m.
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Hurry up. If you pick the right place and start drinking right now — could be booze, could be espresso — a percentage of today’s proceeds (Thu., Sept. 27) goes to helping fund four local HIV/AIDS service organizations. That’s the third annual Bar AIDS Philadelphia, the local beneficiaries are ActionAIDS, the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, Mazzoni Center and Philadelphia FIGHT and you can call 215-981-3328 or hook up with Bar AIDS Philadelphia on Facebook and Twitter for more info.
Before she hits the Electric Factory with Nas on Nov. 7, Ms. Lauryn Hill will drop that single on Ruffhouse that Chris Schwartz gave me the exclusive news on in August. The track is “Black Rage” and its message is, according to the press statement, meant to be “a juxtaposition to the statement ‘life is good,’ which she believes can only be so when issues of racial inequity are resolved.” Life is Good happens to be the name of Nas’ recent #1 album.
If you’ve driven past Stephen Starr and Joe Carroll’s Fette Sau on Frankford Ave. you know that its wooded smokehouse is ready for smokehouse goodness. But what about a date for the bee-u-tiful BBQ? Folks close to the situation say somewhere in the Oct. 9-15 range.
SHOW: Pro-Mania 2K12: WitOut Wrestling
GROUP: Philly Improv Theater (PHIT)
GENRE: Sketch/Improv Comedy
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 7, 11:30 pm., Fri., Sept. 14, 11:30 p.m., Sat. Sept. 22, 11:30 p.m.
CLOSED: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: 2011’s hit show returns! A sport-stravagant celebration of the larger-than-life spectacle that is professional wrestling (with only some of the wrestling). Philly’s top comedic performers pay homage to the flashy trash-talking promos, slick video packages and bitter rivalries of the squared circle.
WE THINK: Joey Dougherty certainly got his comeuppance, after letting the championship go to his head. Congrats to fan-favorite Moonshine Marvin, who technically won the belt while Joey was snoozing backstage (since the belt is 24/7, falls-count-anywhere). The stealthy pin was shown on the Jumbotron to the delight of a packed Adrienne Theatre. Moonshine successfully defended his new title in the main-event tag match between himself and "the intern" vs. Joey and Alex Fucking Gross. It was a surprisingly well-choreographed night of wrassling all around — especially for a gang of untrained local comedians. One exception: Local pro-wrestler Tim Donst gave The Necrosexual a lesson in self-esteem after a black-metal-shred-off-turned-"Kumbaya"-sing-along ended in the dark lord's embarrassment (ya know, like it usually does).
Nothing like a sing-songy, heart-string-tugging hit with disturbing imagery —”cut open my sternum and pull my little ribs around you” — to get everyone humming as they shuffle out of the venue.
The melody puts in perspective the passion and romance of those lines, so, if you haven’t yet, I guess you would have to hear it. Purity Ring’s Fireshrine is an ear worm you won’t want to get rid of.
Really, its bass-booming, hip hop-inspired beats guide a chorus of enchanting vocals. The duo swooned the audience with an entirely organic encapsulation of all that these two Alberta, Canada natives have created and ready-or-not gone viral with in the past year or so. Other than a few barely-notable glitches, their set was as seamless and electronically charged as the recordings.
Corin Roddick manipulates the sound boards while singer Megan James saunters back and forth across the stage, charming the dance out of the crowd. She and Roddick are both armed with drum sticks, for virtual purposes only. They work as wands commanding the light display that they’ve carefully constructed — a series of color-changing paper cocoons dangling down over the stage and a ring of paper bulbs surrounding Roddick, which work as drum pads/touch lamps.
James is quite comely with a sort of home-town girl appeal — endearing curls springing from her pony and draping around her slightly nervous-looking expression. Nervous, in a sense, it seems, that can be attributed to the band’s unintentional rush to stardom. James looks a bit overwhelmed at times, mostly when the music stops. But when she’s in the song, there’s no denying she’s in heaven and everyone in the crowd is buzzing that she sings like an angel.
When asked how the show went, “It was hot,” was her response, “Good, and hot.” The church basement is a notoriously sweltering box reeking of beer and bodies, but it only added to the power of the performance.
In an era where success can be counted by Youtube hits, Purity Ring has reached millions and been forced to get it together, get touring and get ready to have hoards of fans trying to get a moment with them at the merch table. Seeing these kinds of over-night successful bands can obviously go one of two ways, and these guys killed it on first impressions. If they can pack the church on a Thursday night and bid good night to a room of satisfied faces, bets are on that they’ll be back and on to bigger venues soon.
The grouping of underground filmmakers, cinephiles and theoreticians that make up Philadelphia’s Shooting Wall collective will show wherever they find a blank flat space. Could be an art gallery’s white expanse. Could be outside City Hall for the Occupy Movement during encampment’s start. Currently, along with wrapping up issue number five of its eponymous film zine, the local-oriented floating collective finds itself with a semi-permanent screening home in the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art. The one-Monday-a-month series starts with showings of two of Shooting Wall’s most auspicious and conspicuous filmmaking members — Joshua Martin who has hosted his share of Shooting Gallery events and Joe Kramer. Martin, the director of claustrophobic shorts Bathtub and Shoebox unveils the long form Episodes from an Investigation while Kramer screens the teeny tiny Vacant Guillotine Blues.
Mon., Sept. 24, 7 p.m., free, PhilaMOCA, 31 N. 12th St., 267-519-9651.
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Fibber
GROUP: Philly Improv Theater
GENRE: Storytelling/improv
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 21, 9:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: 4 STORYTELLERS. 1 FIBBER. After swearing to tell the truth, Philly’s most talented storytellers share their own personal and outrageous experiences with the audience—but someone has made it all up. It’s the audience's job to hear the stories and vote for the person whose pants they think are on fire!
WE THINK: Hilary Rea gave a delightful introduction by admitting her gullibility about the non-existent Pizza Wolf club at Lazaro’s. Then I listened dutifully to the four “local celebrities” who played Fibber. Dan Gross of the Daily News told a gross out story about shitting his pants. But I knew he wasn’t full of shit. Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll spoke inelegantly about a job he did at an Internet porn company. (Nobody using notes to remember dildos and overdoses could be lying.) Bryan Dwyer of Pizza Brain told a story about sleep deprivation that seemed too vague — as soon as I heard Geekadelphia’s Eric Smith’s fishy tale of getting hooked by a camper, I figured Dwyer was the fabricator. However, Dwyer was really convincing in the Q&A session, and Eric wasn’t. (Lake Winnebago?!) And why was Eric — who admitted he couldn’t swim — out in a boat on a lake supervising kids? As for whether I marked the ballot correctly, I won’t lie. But I won’t tell you either.
—Gary M. Kramer
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Scout
GROUP: Fur Collective
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Mon., Sept. 17
CLOSES: Wed., Sept. 19 (Note: this review slipped through the cracks, apologies! —ed.)
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: This piece is ripe with patriotism and controversy. Using these entities this piece explores entitlement, occupation of space, and the world we inherit. Scout allows us to be critical of a country full of contradictions while still being completely enamored by its charm.
WE THINK: Three boy scouts (Hannah DeKeijzer, Yasmin Roberti, Anna Szapiro) sit around a campfire with a bag of marshmallows. The game is Chubby Bunny, and the objective is to speak while filling your mouth to maximum capacity. The scouts are attempting to finish the line "America is..." which makes a good deal of sense considering they are the Boy Scouts of America, after all. The responses sound about right in the beginning ("America is baseball," "America is babes"), but once the declaration comes out that "America isn't all that it's cracked up to be" then things take on a tone a bit heavier than just mere spitballin'. However, the heady debate goes unresolved as our characters quickly move onto a swimming hole, and with a running time of just under thirty minutes, it's never revisited. The premise is novel enough and the dialogue engaging, but the sudden ending leaves way too much on the table.
—Chris Brown
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Backstory
GROUP: Hot Dish + Philly Improv Theater
GENRE: Improv
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A completely improvised show that unfolds backward in time, similar to the movie Memento. Unlike anything that fans of improv and comedy at the Philly Fringe have ever seen before, it's an evening of completely engrossing and entertaining theater from the curtain call to the opening suggestion.
WE THINK: As far as plot goes, it’s not exactly going to be Memento, given that the performers are thinking on their feet, working backwards and trying to be funny all at once. Fortunately, that’s somewhat beside the point. On the night we went, there were plenty of hilarious moments punctuating the confusing and awkward ones, as performers worked backward to commit a solved murder and ask the answered questions.
—Samantha Melamed
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Sequence 8
GROUP: Seven Fingers
GENRE: Dance
ATTENDED: Tue., Sept. 18, 7 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: The Montreal-based circus company creates circus on a human scale—placing the extraordinary element of circus in ordinary contexts. In extreme close-up, Sequence 8 features aerial hoops, rings, Korean board, cigar box juggling, Chinese acrobatics, and incredible feats of balance and beauty—all by performers whose basic human desires and qualities audiences can relate to.
WE THINK: With Sequence 8, Seven Fingers takes the adage about art imitating life to heart. Throughout the show, the company employs circus arts as metaphors for expressing ideas about elements of human life. The teeterboard, for instance, relates to the search for balance. A trapeze artist makes a number of attempts before getting his act in gear. Coincidental actions continually have consequences to others in the cast, which comes off like a bunch of good friends. It’s all very endearing, and risky, too. When a guy plunges down a tall pole, head first, stopping just inches from the ground, you get a real jolt of adrenaline. Other times the circus arts, though difficult to master, are presented in such as way as to make you want to jump on stage and join in what’s happening. These amiable performers truly connect with the audience, and that’s the neatest trick of all.
—Deni Kasrel
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Food Court
GROUP: Back to Back Theatre with The Necks
GENRE: Theater/music
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 20, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Part concert, part theater show, FOOD COURT follows a near death experience in a suburban mall by the Asian Hut and the Juice Bar. Played out in a psychological space constructed from light and sound, the stage transforms a mundane seating area into a shadowy void, where the edges between floor, walls, and ceiling become indistinguishable. This majestic canvas then moves its performers into a forest, a place of nightmares where the moral and ethical framework keeping our fragile civil existence together no longer exists. FOOD COURT features the remarkable vision of Australia’s Back to Back Theatre and the live music of The Necks, who create a new score for each performance.
WE THINK: Hard to watch and hard to shake, Food Court first forces viewers to watch a brutal act of bullying and its aftermath, then to examine their own experiences and expectations. We meet two women, played by Nicki Holland and Sonia Teuben, in the midst of a seemingly banal conversation about food. Eventually, they belittle a third woman (Sarah Mainwaring) about her weight and lack of speech; their taunts turn to sustained ritual humiliation and physical abuse. That all of the actors have perceived intellectual disabilities only ramps up the tension and transcendence, as does The Necks’ unsettling improvised score.
—M.J. Fine
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