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Copyright |
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©2005 Jason Cross
All Rights Reserved
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 Thursday, May 15, 2003 |
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Last Thursday I went to see Mannheim Steamroller live and in concert at the Civic Center along with Lori and her mother. Why Mannheim Steamroller you ask? Because Lori's mom wanted to go for Mother's Day and Lori asked me to come along - and since I'm a sucker for A) doing weird things and B) Lori, I did.
Ahh Mannheim Steamroller (pronounced MAN-HIME by the group rather than Lori's preferred German-sounding MAHN-HIME)...that perennial Christmas favorite... Many times I have laughed at my step-mother Sheila's penchant for their Christmas CDs, so I was surprised to hear that they have non-X-Mas music too. Another surprise was finding out that the main band members all play electronic digital instruments rather than the main thing, except the drummer sometimes. And the girl who played the chimes. Chimes are rather analog.
The first half of the concert was pretty straightforward, with them playing selections from their past Fresh Aire series entries (1 through 7). There was one song where they played this video showing the band playing along with odd dancing kids, medieval figures riding horses, a mad scientist pianist and two sword-fighting warriors...that was a bit odd.
Then the second half was composed of the entire Fresh Aire 8, including the video portion which was "four years and five million dollars in the making". This was where it got really out there.
Fresh Aire 8 uses Infiniti as it's theme (you see, an 8 on it's side is like the infiniti symbol...), and as such there were 8 sections all devoted to various concepts of infiniti. Highlights included:
* A section with Greek Philosophers. Though it seemed more like a story of Greek philosophers written by a high school student, talking about "infiniti" between some Greeks and what looked like Romans and Egyptians. Then the "belly dancers with fake breasts" as Lori called them came on.
* A section on space and The Big Bang, with lots of CGI space shots, photos, LOTS of images of the Horsehead Nebula for some reason, and zooming by the planets remeniscent of the opening to Star Trek: The Next Generation
* A section on fractals that was very 1995 and computer screen-saverish.
* And my favorite for trippiness, a section where a cartoon Steamroller (complete with a smiling face and cartoon eyes on the windshield) be-bops through a cartoon town and comes upon a live-action 50s-era sock hop at a school and - get this - dances with a girl there. That's right, a live action girl twirling around the dance floor with a smiling cartoon steamroller.
I was not expecting that.
Ok, so I make fun, but I was also glad I went. The music was pretty good and it was certainly an experience. :) |
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