Barking Tuna Festival reels in Kalamazooans
Monday, October 7, 2002
BY JEFF PLEGGE
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
J-Live and Spoon received the only encore screams that night, and the rabid J-Live fans far out-energized the dwindling number of fans that hung around for the show's headliners. J-Live himself brought more energy to the stage than all four of the Spoon boys, and his energy was mimicked by his DJ extraordinaire, Flow Fader. The couple flowed as one, picking up each other's beats and cues and executing mad rhymes like "Henry the VIII."
Although J-Live clearly owned the show, other acts, from the strange to the weird, made impressions on the crowd as well. One of the night's most entertaining acts was Tucson, Ariz.'s, Bob Log III.
Clad in a blue Evil Knievel jumpsuit and crash helmet, Log III was a one-man showstopper. Armed with a bass drum on his right foot and a cymbal and sampler on his left, Log III and his 1960s Silvertone cranked out party anthems based largely on beer and women's anatomies. In fact, the sweaty pillar of personality even cajoled two young women from the audience into placing parts of themselves into his Scotch and then mounting his knee for his show's finale. The girls bounced like Mexican jumping beans on his knee while Log beat out breakneck rhythm and blues in a style not too far removed from the Butthole Surfers and Ministry. Log's hard-edge approach and hilarious antics caused many previously bored fans to flock toward the stage, eager for more belly laughs and struggling to get a glimpse of the masked marvel who seemed to have beamed down from some other planet.
Other acts bordering on dementia included Tracy + the Plastics and the Monokulators.
Tracy + the Plastics was mixed-media mayhem, with vocalist Wynne Greenwood composing the entire band. Creating alter egos of Tracy and cyber bandmates Nikki and Cola, the one-woman show used a backdrop screen to showcase a mini-movie of various things such as animation, intense close-ups of stale-looking food, and several references to a gay/lesbian life.
The music was part '80s synth music and part Debbie Harry extravagance that resulted in a unique combination of art rock. Greenwood, under the moniker of Tracy, sung warbler vocals and oozed sincerity as she asked the young crowd about such topics as life in Kalamazoo and their sexual preferences. The show was well planned and executed and put forth an altogether new mode of musical expression.
The Monokulators, who opened the festival, were a sight to behold. Frontman Harry K. Hairy changed outfits several times, going from insane conductor to crazed amphibian to pajama-fitted ape. The crowd sat with their jaws hanging open, unable to take their eyes from the spastic Hairy, who convulsed and fluttered like a maestro with Tourette's syndrome.
Hairy's stage presence added to the group's old-school punk sound, and when he began mimicking animals to the sound of a Fisher Price noisemaker, the dazed crowd exchanged looks of fascination and occasional confusion. The group was like a 1970s Devo experiment, and any punk rage that bellowed from the PA was overtaken by the band's cartoonish and unique antics.
Crooked Fingers, playing as a one-man band of Eric Bachmann, was further evidence of the festival's expression of variety. Bachmann, who followed the raucous Log III, took the crowd into someplace mellow, playing such classics as Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" and Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me." Bachmann was sincere and appreciative of the enthralled crowd and seemed to be the most "normal" of the night's artists.
Bachmann belted out Neil-Diamond-meets-Tom-Waits vocals and crooned originals pertaining to booze, love gone bad and days gone by. He was truly a refreshing rock 'n' roll presence amid the gaggles of art and punk rock.
Adding a bit of everything to the mix was techno spinner Geoff White.
White took the stage early in the day and was immediately assaulted with an array of technical difficulties about which he could only shrug his shoulders and shake his head. The problems he encountered took away from his allotted time and served to further frustrate the ambient techno wiz.
When the equipment did get up and running, White created spacey and psychedelic tracks, but tracks too mellow for the kind of audience he was dealing with. Although his act was generally well executed and entertaining, White's turntable trials may have lost the young crowd before he even began.
Click here to return to the Tuna Fest page
