Saturday, November 05, 2005

St. Christopher and the Sleeping Doormen 11.04.05. Don Hill's





by Charlotte Deaver

I love this band. Led by Chris Gordon (the tall guy with the nice legs!) they play tight, funky, slightly wacky songs, and they're funny as shit.

It doesn't hurt, either, that Chris Gordon is a poet. He sees the world in altered frequencies, coordinating them with our planet just enough for us to get it. Sometimes he transmits his universe to us with a sweet bounce, sometimes in speedy jolts, but the music and words are always driving and playful.

In one of his songs, "Babies," he captures that infant essence. I can't remember any of the words, but the song kind of rocks on your knee like a little baby, adorable yet unruly and spastic. On the other hand, "Everybody Hop on the Cock!" is practically a protest song, a call to arms against increasing censorship and fascism. That's my interpretation, of course, but I like to think that the band is presenting an implicit politics of disobedience. It's not punk music, but a punk ethic. It's not hip hop, but it is about telling, and about keepin' it real.

Best of all, though, it's fun. This band makes it clear that it's good to be alive. And at my age, any band that can make it worth being up at 2:30 in the morning has to be doing a lot of things right!

It was also an added pleasure to see the folks at Don Hill's again, where I used to play (long ago). I will definitely be back to say hello and hear more music.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home 1aa3