Bill Mike Band CD Release w/ Hummingbird at Cedar Cultural Center on 11/14/08

By: Donette Ambrosy

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Bill Mike Band - Photo by Jenn Barnett

“Mommy, is this rock ‘n roll?”

“Yes, darling. It’s the Bill Mike Band.”

This naïve yet profound exchange between my four-year-old son and me serves as an adequate summary of the experience we shared at the Cedar Cultural Center Friday night.

My kiddo requested an unprecedented “spiky hairdo” for the show; little did we know just how à propos my diminutive hipster’s finger-in-a-light-socket coiffure would be for the Bill Mike Band CD Release Party.  The band exudes the spirit of rock ‘n roll in its truest, big-hair-inspiring form.

Bill Mike (nee William Michel), resplendent in polyester double-knit track suit, wasted no time ensnaring the audience’s attention with his incredibly masterful guitar wailing with their opening song. Initially the cynic in me was prone to writing them off as another Black Rebel Motorcycle Club sound-alike, but I was quickly won over by Mike’s technical prowess, vocal ingenuity, and just plain “realness.”

The visual juxtaposition created by Bill’s just-left-the-gym apparel against bassist Chris Morrisey’s dapper, gentry suitings serve as a decent metaphor for the band’s symbiosis of glam and proletariat; fantasy and reality; and perhaps most strikingly, the perfect balance of restraint and showmanship exemplified by Bill Mike as a performer.

Chris Morrisey - Photo by Jenn Barnett

Enhancing the solid musicianship, a complete multisensory experience was created via liberal use of fog machines and a respectable light show (both of which were brought in by the band for this Cedar show), which somehow did not come off as at all trite or kitschy (…even if perhaps that was their aim.)

At times the pervasive volume of fog seemingly spouting from the tips of drummer Steve Goold's sticks seemed to suggest that the drum kit was dangerously close to spontaneously combusting from the sheer energy being generated onstage.  The dense fog combined with the amazing sound quality at the Cedar synergized to reinforce the notion that this music was too big for this room, this crowd. At moments I couldn’t escape the feeling that the sound waves were themselves a living entity seeking to escape the confines of the venue’s walls.  To this end, I would have liked to have seen more of an enthusiastic response from the full house audience, who sat rather demurely through the performance.

I’d had high hopes for the peripheral entertainment, which had been touted as an “old-school Lollapalooza” throwback.  In retrospect, I think my expectations of the juggling troupe were probably unrealistic; but in truth, it almost seemed as though two kids from a nearby performing arts magnet school had wandered in from the street to entertain for a few moments.  I’m not sure they were up to Perry Ferrell’s standards.

Opening act Hummingbird had our heads bobbing at the start of the evening with their jazzy / bluegrassy stylings.  Their guitarist captured our imaginations with idiosyncratic anecdotes and lyrics of livestock herding on Grandpa’s farm (“Buck and Blaze; get back in the stable!”).  A broken string early in the set was handled with unruffled feathers on the part of the band, and quiet courtesy on the part of the somewhat meager early crowd.

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Location Info: Cedar Cultural Center
Artist Info: Bill Mike

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