Tonight, I went to the Old Bar in Fitzroy to see
Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen.
They rocked. They played two sets, going for about two and a half hours
in total, performing various songs on accordion, contrabass, violin, clarinet
and a few other instruments.
Most of their songs had an eastern-European feel, though some were rather
Spanish, and there was even a spirited Irish jig in the set.
Their performance was intense; the melodramatic lyrics (from a world where
people are routinely beset by entire Hells of devils, it would appear)
executed with fearsome intensity; it wasn't all brooding madness though; there
was a good dose of humour (the performers' stage personas and affected
accents; the instrumental solos, which whilst technically impeccable were
perhaps a little too flamboyant in places to be entirely straight, and the
song where the musicians, who had wandered into the audience, joined in with
animal sound effects in appropriate places). Towards the end, they did a few
earnest songs; just acoustic guitar and heartfelt lyrics, with no theatrics;
there were tears in the audience. And then they launched into an encore of
their signature number which was about either sex or cannibalism, depending on
how you interpret it.
Anyway, they're playing tomorrow (Tuesday) night at the Old Bar again; I
recommend seeing them.
http://www.captainfez.com/blog/
Wed Apr 17 00:25:48 2002
Do they have any releases? I mean - I can't find anything online here...