How often do you get to eat popcorn at a concert? Or gourmet cupcakes? Well, that’s what the audience was doing at the Silent Movie Theatre last night. It was the second concert of their month long live-music series and Free Moral Agents were performing a live score to the 1927 film Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. As soon as I entered the theatre I noticed the massive setup sprawled in front of the movie screen. Turn tables, keyboards, bass, more keyboards, a violin, a trumpet… are those maracas? Jeez, how many people were in this band, anyway?
By the time Free Moral Agents started, the theatre was pretty full. The band is a psychedlic-fusion creation by Ikey Owens (who you may know as the keyboardist for the Mars Volta). According to their Myspace, there are six full-time members. But I counted at least eleven people on stage. Not only was I impressed that they managed to fit into the modestly sized theatre, but I couldn’t even figure out what everyone’s exact role was in the band. There were just too many people!
With that many people playing music, you can imagine that it was an excellent sensory assault to the system. Their vocalist, Mendee Ichikawa, gave off a rich powerful sort of sound as she read lyrics from a small hand diary. She was wearing a yellow 1950’s-chic dress and often danced while images of 1920’s Berlin flickered on the screen. Ikey Owens often pointed and lead the group when he wasn’t grooving out on his keyboard (he was definitely working it last night). In fact, watching this giant band work together was often more of a show than the movie they were scoring.
Other highlights included touching violin/guitar duet to a scene of children going to school and when three more brass players joined the group halfway in to the show (increasing the band size to at least 14 people). I was also really into the blood pumping jazz-fusion trumpet-buster done to images of the busy Berlin streets of years gone by. At one moment Ichikawa sadly crooned, “You are flickering on the surface. You aren’t real.” As soon as she said that, I looked back at the movie, at the thousands of people living in Berlin a hundred years ago. All their images on screen seemed changed to me. How real were they?
Having a live score performed to a silent movie is a new experience for me. It gives audiences a chance to experience both music and film in radical way. It also changes the game for musicians too. And last night was a great time because of it. Free Moral Agents were a completely rockin, high energy group. They played loud groove-out psychedelica filled with soul. I’m really glad the Silent Movie Theatre decided to do this concert series.
Rachel K.
www.loudvine.com
