That's a Press photo of Dan Deacon, one of the craziest people eva. But a good man all the same.
(oh, and I apologize for the craziness of this post, allergy season just hit, and I'm kinda high on claritin)
Last night was quite the Rawk-Gasm. Rhinoceropolis has yet to disappoint. I'll try to explain the show in as few words as possible ... here we go:
The line up was as follows:
Baltimore peps:
Dan DeaconBlood BabySanta DadsVideo HipposDenver peps:
Milton Melvin Croissant IIIMarried in Berdichev!Pictureplane/Travis' new side project [Edit: their name is BAZI KANANI, after the 9News reporter(I assume)]
Juaren (not sure of "artist name")Thats' quite the hefty line up. The occasion? Baltimore's
Wham City invaded Rhinoceropolis for one night, and showed us how they did it in Baltimore, and, in return, we gave them a small taste of how we do it in Denver.
The show started around 10:30, and was a bit of a carnival. All of the Baltimore bands and one of the Denver bands (MMC III) had been setting up at the same time, and were, thus, all raring to go. The way it worked was as such: Each Baltimore band played a song or two, then they traded off and let another Baltimore Band play. After they all got a turn, a Denver band/artist performed 1 song, and the whole thing repeated, with a different Denver band each time. There were 4 rounds like this. During each individual band's performance there were lights set up to signify which side of the room we were to all flock to and enjoy tunes. It was weird, but it worked.
Santa Dads kinda threw everything off
though. Everybody else was loud and fast and dancy, and then Santa Dads would play their odd mix electric-ukulele and beat-boxing which, while interesting and, over-all, pretty damn cool, it was still a bit like driving on those stupid streets that have stop signs on every corner.
This is about how it broke down:
Santa Dads (fully dressed in Grandma-Mu-Mu Gown and Hobbes-esq Tiger suit. At one point the Grandma-Mu-Mu guy came out for their round dressed in a very revealing [you could see his package] spandex clown suit and did interpretive dancing to a Shakespearian-style monologue read out by the Tiger suit guy. It solidified the "carnival-esq" feel of the night)
Video Hippos (they had this awesome projector which showed distorted video clips of new reports, cartoons, etc and audio system that pumped out tinny music that they band then drowned out. I'd seen this once before with a six piece band (who's name escapes me), but it was just as spectacular. They also joined forces with Dan Deacon and Santa Dads under a huge sheet with black eyes colored on it to look like eyes and pretended to be the Ghost of Sport, which then preceeded to talk to itself ["'Did you see the gaaaaaame?' 'why yes I did see the game' 'was it goooooood?' 'of course it was gooooood, it was a gaaaaaaame!'"])
Dan Deacon (occasionally he would, in pure Dan Deacon fashion, tell stories or have little skits, or get everyone together for a camp-fire-type confession [everyone held hands and went in a circle confessing the first lie they could think of telling while knowing they could get away with it, with one chica actually breaking into tears {I think is was more that she was caught up in the moment, and not that she had dredged up painful memories}] before breaking into song, and then joining the crowd, turning it into a gigantic dance party/competition [you really had to be there to fully understand what I'm talking about, but I hope the message gets across just the same])
Blood Baby (basically, they just rocked the eff out with their driving guitar riffs, dancy, rock-out drum beats, and hilarious lyrics relating to everything from Bingo to face stabbing)
then it was one of the Rhino acts, then repeat. Rhinoceropolis artists:
Milton Melvin Croissant III (of
Ultra Boyz! fame [said with tongue in cheek] didn't play one of his more ambient folky tunes, but rather a more punky tune that was, to me, rather reminiscent of The Ultra Boyz!, save for the fact that this tune sounded entirely intentional ;))
Married in Berdichev! (truthfully, I was a little sad that she didn't perform a longer song. Gorgeous vocals like that need to be flaunted more frequently)
Pictureplane/Travis' Side Project [Edit: BAZI KANANI] (Dancy little indi-techno-noise number that, to me, seemed to go on a bit long, but was damn fun regardless. I liked the fact that he and the person who he collaborated with [who I never really did get a good look at] had never even practiced together])
Juaren (He had a most awesome guitar with a little "harp" addition thing on the side. Problem was that even if he did use it, we couldn't tell, because his performance was basically chaotic noise. While interesting, it wasn't incredibly entertaining. Good closing act anyway.)
Quite the festival. Reward for reading:
Dan Deacon - Wham City
Video Hippos - Bearfight
Milton Melvin Croissant III - Snare of Love
(Bonus mp3: The Ultra Boyz! - 2045)Married in Berdichev! - It's Hard ReplacingHere's a Pictureplane live set which I recorded:
Band: Pictureplane
Date: 2006-05-15
Venue: Monkey Mania, Denver, CO
IntroDouble Set of LungsFootball Player Stadiums[Break]Stars Away, Stars Afar (New)No Name, But Soul (New)[Break]Why Don't You Just Fade AwayNeon Herts For Eyes[Edit: just as a side note, I didn't end up seeing Man Man at the Larimer Lounge with The Vitamins, so I won't be talking about that show {can't talk about something you didn't see}, but, as promised, I'll be posting another live set in a few days]
So, apparently, if you go to the Wikipage for the US One-Hundred Dollar Bill, and tilt your screen, you can see the water marks. It worked when I was looking on my brother-in-law's laptop, but it doesn't seem to work on mine. They might have caught on and did whatever they did with the others, because this was the only one that used to work.
