Word association is a powerful thing. Before last night whenever I heard the
word ‘tang’ the first think that came to mind was the orange, just-add-water
refreshment created for astronauts and kept in business by working mothers for
whom the powdered drink was a more practical solution than actual fruit
juice. But my mental landscape was
changed for good, the meaning of ‘tang’ forever re-established, when I stepped
into El Lenador last night. The Barons of Tang had taken stage.
Imagine the scene.
The stage at El Lenador is essentially just a platform for the drum kit
around which all the other musicians set up. So, around this small stage, you have six musicians in
addition to the drummer, and they are energetic, theatrical, and masterful at
their own particular brand of off kilter presentation. Between pulling off beautiful duets and
solos, the horn section, Anna—alto sax and trombone— and Aviva—clarinet and
bass sax—danced and jumped about.
Anna jabbed at the air with her instrument as if fighting of some
invisible monster. Julian, the bassist and lead singer, slaps his upright and
growls the lyrics in his thick Australian accent. Annie bounced from bongos and congas to corbel and an array
of cymbals, adding perfectly timed flurries of percussive virtuosity to Sean’s
steady thunder on the kit. Occasionally
the entire band shouts lyrics slightly off cadence from one another creating
the exact kind of riotous cacophony they seem bent on inciting. Carlos’
accordion and Jules’ electric guitar made for a melodic glue for otherwise
disparate sounds. In a word, magnificent. It was magnificent to behold.
This is the type of band that breaks up the regular boxes we
put music into and makes you ask what exactly you’re experiencing. At one point, I hit the bar and turned
to Johnny Vegas, the man behind the mayhem at El Lenador , and asked him “What
is this?” A guy next to me
overheard. “It’s hipster punk,” he
said.
I see where he got punk. The energy of the band certainly reminds you of a punk act
doing it well. And there was an
element of ‘hipster chic’ to the band’s look and presentation. Still, I didn’t quite agree with his
characterization of the sound.
There was much more to it than that. There were elements of the big band jazz of the early 20th
century, a strong folk influence, bits and pieces of prog rockers like Frank
Zappa and Jethro Tull. In
short, the music defies simple explanation and conventional labels. The Barons are exciting precisely because
they bend and resist the normal constraints of genre and in doing so create
something entirely new. On their
website (http://www.thebaronsoftang.com/)
they call their style Gypsy Deathcore.
Something gets lost even in that description though as this music, in my
opinion, is accessible to a far broader swath of people than deathcore
typically is (perhaps it’s the gypsy part).
The best way to understand what I’ve been rambling about
above is to get out and see the band.
If you’re reading this within a reasonable time of when I’m posting it,
you’re in luck. The Barons of Tang
are in town for one more night and they are playing at 9pm at the Black Bear
Bakery (http://blackbearbakery.org/),
2639 Cherokee St., St. Louis 63118.
Be sure to get out and see them or you’ve missed the show of your life
