every genre under the stars

this show was all over the place, literally from 1 end of the musical universe to the boundaries of the next--Sharks With Knives showed up on the front porch the day before the show, his place to stay in Cincy had fallen through and he needed a place to stay--side point, in his economic hatchback and strapped on camp box, Sharks (1 man folk band) may be the most efficient traveller we've had at the shack--so we got the pleasure of the Sharks company (his real name is Chris) for 24 hours and i am happy to say that his set sounded just like i imagined it would based on his porch presence--thoughtful, uplifting, at least 1 song where he had the entire room singing along lah di dah--he even has an upbeat song about hanging out on the porch and smoking cigarettes--if you ever have been to the shack, you know that's close to our hearts--but he also has songs about struggle about justice but like all great artists he takes the pain of life and makes it a little more bearable by juxtaposing what's hard with a happy little melody--well if Sharks With Knives was a little misleading in the naming of his project (i mean don't you picture some dark tough punk not his disarmingly happy folk) Cryptorchid Chipmunk more than lived up to it's name--almost too weird to describe--start off with the sound check keyboards, guitar, seemingly normal set up but as soon as they start to play, just a little tease of base and board fast and funky and only about 30 seconds i'm already dancing--"thank you and good night" but reading between the lines you know they are coming back what are they doing? costume changes--easily the most colorful band to play at the Shack--gods i wish i had gotten a good picture, superhero chic, as insane as the music--an ever shifting hodgepodge of ska, hardcore, electro, hip hop, and sheer stage presence most of their songs end in in crazy cacophonic chaos--couldn't make out too many of the lyrics--they had a song called Sexy Lexy (you're such a hoe you give everyone everything) and one equating love and drugs (girl you're my ketamine) just as fast and hard as they can go, abrupt stops, 15 seconds of really good ska, chaos, obviously freestyled rhymes, repeat, actually no repeats each room a new plane of weird--but rocking--any band calls themselves Cryptorchid Chipmunk are obviously on the next level and they clearly are (plus their drummer gave me a beer--cheers to the kindness of strangers)--how could anybody play after that--Vietnam Werewolves did an admirable job though--their classic punk anthems got more adventurous, more epic as they placed--songs about the suburbs--hard hitting power chords--crap there goes the egg timer, time to wrap this bad boy up--the Werewolves (i wonder if they know about Lexington's American Werewolves, what a great double bill) really did rock and brought on the real falling of night--wrapping up was our own Noisy Crane--great ending to the show--very laid back, even though it was electronic we kept the door open (breaking our own rules) and let the music out into the night--violin, soft guitars and voices nothing over powers--pretty much in direct contrast to Chipmunk, that's what i meant about the show being all over the place, which i quite enjoy, let's throw every genre at 'em and see what sticks--well i'm out of time here so you know--keep rocking--oh and see you at the Honey Town festival this weekend (if you have to ask you'll never know)