By: John Marston
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| The Show is the Rainbow - Photo from myspace.com/theshowistherainbow |
With a crowd not even 30 people strong on Sunday night; everyone was afraid to make the first move to the dance floor as Zibra Zibra took the stage at the Triple Rock Social Club.
Luckily, this didn’t seem to bother the energetic group as they railed through their first few songs like the floor was packed. As everyone in the audience was back against the walls looking around to see who would be the first to get up in front of the band and dance, Darren Keen (aka The Show is The Rainbow) got up in front and did what everyone else was too afraid to do. Not only did Keen take away the stress of being the first guy to stand up and listen to the band, but he was also the goofiest looking guy in the club. His portly physique and oversized red plastic framed glasses made it clear he was far from worried about being the coolest guy in the room. His presence in the center of the floor all of a sudden made everyone more comfortable as the rest of the audience (including myself) joined him. Unfortunately, for Zibra Zibra, this didn’t happen until almost half way through their set. But before long I was trading high fives with lead singer Z (Neil Zunwalde) as he danced right down onto the floor with the small audience.
By the time Tarantula Skulls took the stage, the crowd was no longer timidly hiding in the dark corners at the Triple Rock, but gathered right in front not knowing what to expect. One year ago, Tarantula Skulls were playing the 720 Space in Northeast Minneapolis along with other noise artists from around town. But now their set-long jams of feedback, delay and drone are out of the picture. The Tarantula Skulls’ set on Sunday was full of well-crafted tunes with little, if any, improvisation.
Defining the sound of this new incarnation of Tarantula Skulls were Andy Fritz and Wes Statler. One part chill psychedelic (Fritz) and one part chaos (Statler), together they became Tarantula Skulls. By trading off instruments (guitar, bass, vocals/distorted vocals, samplers, drums) throughout the set, each song took on a personality of either more a Fritz song or a Statler song, or both.
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Tarantula Skulls - Photo by Carl Wedoff
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Between Statler’s periods of yelping into the microphone and impersonating John Bonham’s drum solos, the band seemed to stick to sweeping guitar and keyboard harmonies reminiscent of early to mid Pink Floyd.
Classic rock seemed to play a lot of influence to their new sound as they performed a brilliant cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb.” On the song, Fritz chugged along the bass parts of the song as Statler sang along to a hefty backing track of drums and synth and the supporting vocals of Mick Jagger sampled sporadically throughout the song.
By the time The Show is The Rainbow began to setup, it was nearing midnight and the little crowd that was on hand, seemed to get even smaller. Even with so few people watching, Keen acted as though it were just any other show he’s done as a headlining band (he mentioned that’s why his former record label went bankrupt).
Each of Keen’s songs was pretty much the same. They all seemed to be nerdy themed rap songs. He would introduce them by saying something ridiculous like, “This song is about how the special kids who ride the short bus got their medications mixed up and took Viagra instead of their normal pills.” Then he would cue the backing tracks and projection screen from his laptop before he jumped onto the floor and went wild in the crowd all while spitting his rhymes.
As soon as he started his first song, I couldn’t believe what was happening. This overweight man danced and moved around better than most skinny lead singers I have seen. Using the front of the stage for his projection screen, Keen used the floor around the remaining spectators as the place he ran wild during each song.
The highlight of his set, and my night, was when he decided to climb onto a barstool and crowd surf on 10 people. He pointed to me realizing I was the tallest one in the room and would probably be able to hoist him up, but before I had a chance to get my footing he plopped down and almost crashed right to the concrete floor. Everyone in the club helped out and hoisted him up as we all shuffled our feet forward towards the stage. Realizing he might be risking his life crowd surfing with so few people, he jumped off the pile and returned to dancing through the audience.
Towards the end of his set, he got too hot for his shirt and took it off. At this point I couldn’t decide whether to fix my attention on the incredibly intricate videos being projected on screen or concentrate on not getting rubbed by his half-naked sweaty body as he danced dangerously close to me on the dance floor. I might not remember all of the jokes he told or what on earth he was singing/rapping about, but I will always remember what The Show is the Rainbow smelled like.
Location Info:
Triple Rock Social Club
Artist Info: Tarantula Skulls, The Show is the Rainbow, ZibraZibra
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