Imagine a bunch of ex-marching band geeks coming together for a reunion with a lot of drinking, and a lot more life experience than they had at age 17 and you will find Mucca Pazza. The Empty Bottle was as hopping as I've seen it last Wednesday for the Chicago based, 31- piece, marching-band extravaganza.
Opening with gypsy rocker Jason Webley, the stage was set for more than just a concert, but an experience. Covering Neutral Milk Hotel, directing the audience to participate as the strings and horns sections of another song, and then guiding everyone in 12 twirls to being wasted, The Empty Bottle was transformed from a Chicago, garage rock main-stay to the seedy underbelly of an early, 20th century, Paris bal-musette. Webley's aura was other worldly and acted as the perfect precursor to what can only be described as sheer spectacle.
Enter the trombones, saxophones, trumpets, drums, and cheerleaders, infiltrating the audience and enveloping the entire joint in sound. Jubilant yet dark, Mucca Pazza's marching band gone wrong motif hearkens to the current popularity of gypsy rock in the vein of Golgol Bordello and Devotchka. The nostalgia of their theme, twisted by sheer nerd-dom and the love of play is contagious and the audience was further transported. Away from the Empty Bottle and into an atmosphere of their own making, Mucca Pazza demanded that we engage in their world. How can one ignore a tuba player in full marching regalia ooompah-ing out a tune right next to him?
The dramatics of their act seem to be as important as ever this day in age, when we are all seeking imaginative and escapist entertainment. Mucca Pazza offers it up, a portal to another time, to days past when the was future still so far ahead of us. I left the Empty Bottle last Wednesday, sated, yet feeling that I was on the brink of something. Watching strings and electric guitars and bass drums beat rigorously around the small space, I couldn't help but be touched by the innovation that is the music collective and what the need for community with other artists can produce. One might say I "drank the Kool-Aid," but why not? Mucca Pazza has fully earned the reputation that precedes them and their performance April 9th was no exception.
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