Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 4/6/09

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*****Thanks to Splattered Inc. correspondent Joel for the following review*****

For the unacquainted, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, particularly in its live incarnation, can be a bit overwhelming. To be sure, watching five adults
adorned in homemade costumes and corpse makeup performing dense avant-rock on junkyard instruments sounds like an exercise in masochism, particularly for those who prefer more subtle, electronic, or melodic fare. But almost everyone at Sudworks was cheering for an encore when this quintet left the stage Sunday night. How does one bring such an aesthetic--equal parts Dada theatre, twentieth century classical music, black metal, obscure naturalist ramblings, and carnival show--to a crowded bar and get anyone's attention, much less have that crowd begging for more?

Maybe the answer lies in the music itself. Every member of the group is a virtuoso and accomplished composer in his or her own regard, and the unit is so well rehearsed that the complex song structures and awkward time signatures seem effortless. The homemade instruments, such as a ten-foot log with bass piano strings and a warped bicycle-wheel, conjure obscure sounds which somehow fit perfectly within each song's context. Then there's more accessible fare, such as detuned, distorted guitars, the guttural roar of lead singer/guitarist Nils Frykdahl, violinist Carla Kihlstedt's beautiful textures and Eastern-influenced solos, and Matthias Bossi's steady and explosive drumming.

"And yet one gets the feeling while watching the performance unravel that, despite their complete commitment to the concepts, the band is ultimately just trying their best to put on a good show.”

But there's much more to this band's performance ethic. The live show is a visual spectacle as well, with carefully choreographed lighting and dress which recalls a sort of live-action, full-sized puppet show. And with music this dense and ambitious, it's easy to take yourself too seriously. Yet one of the most appealing aspects of SGM is their wit. Frykdahl has quite a stage presence, a unique ability to perform songs about salamanders and plants without being silly or jocular, or to skillfully handle audience members yelling "Git'R Dun!" (yes, they were there) without being equally lowbrow.

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And yet another aspect of SGM which warrants our curiosity is the legend it has created for itself. The lyrics often read like pseudoscientific naturalist manifestos of the early twentieth century and address issues such as The Last Human Being (quite a funky march, with some dense vocal harmonies), The Donkey Headed Adversary of Humanity (a blistering epic in 5/8 time), and The Helpless Corpses Enactment (which draws its lyrical content from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake). Other times, as in some neo-dada experiment, the words direct the situation and destroy that respected boundary between song and audience--such as in The Companions, when Nils sings, "There here now, lock the door, turn the lights down, put the lights out, close the bar," and all lights in the house go out, save a single spotlight. Of course, no bars close down. Even the name of the band derives from the Sleepytime Gorilla Press, which purportedly published futurist tracts in the early 1900's. But who can really tell--as with anything SGM does, this claim might be fabricated or genuinely obscure, but it's the level of commitment to the idea itself which separates the troupe from so many of its contemporaries.

And yet one gets the feeling while watching the performance unravel that, despite their complete commitment to the concepts, the band is ultimately just trying their best to put on a good show. That is why SGM has garnered such a following; that is the incentive for audiences to endure the dissonance and obtuse subject matter; that is the reason nearly everyone wanted an encore. How appropriate, then, that the final songs of the night are "1997 (Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It's)" and an upbeat, sing-along rendition of "Bring Back The Apocalypse”, a not-so-gentle reminder that, given the tenuous position of humanity anyway, we might as well enjoy the spectacle while we can.

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For More Info, visit: myspace.com/sleepytimegorillamuseum