Angry Housewives

It’s that time of when the Chico Cabaret opens its stage to a new show. With a head full of memories of Eating Raoul, I enter the theater with a bittersweet hope that this show may even top. But I soon see two six year-olds running about and I know that it won’t be the same. Thus, time makes a fool of us all and with that lesson in mind, the Chico Cabaret presents Angry Housewives.

The musical is a spoof of early 1990’s culture, mainly the grunge and punk that we all grew up on. It revolves around four housewives that start a punk-rock band and that’s about the gist of it. Picture the housewives from Edward Scissorhands and you got the idea. It’s predictable; painstakingly so at times. If you have been alive for at least ten years, you are equipped with the knowledge to guess the simplistic storyline. It also bills itself as a comedy, which it technically is. With humor ranging from simple stereotypical puns to dry jokes that were woefully met with crickets. The few gems were the openly-blunt comments that caught even myself off-guard. Unfortunately, the comedy was par of any episode of Full House or According to Jim.

So what about the music? This is the tough part. The actually band playing backstage was masterfully accompanied by guitarist and all-around rocker Loki Miller, who had just finished up his two-week run of the Meat Loaf rock opera. His co-star in it, Samantha Francis, was at the show, wondering why the band was backstage instead of on it; as was I. While the band was great, the lyrics that went along for the ride were not so great. They were lackluster and tedious, offering no real pleasantries to the ears. The cast was the familiar lot of locals that performed without a misstep, while not offering anything new; simply adapting the “if it ain’t broke,” line of thinking.

It is unfortunate to see a show that tries so hard simply come up short. The main problem was trying to have a satire on rock music, since our town has rock playing almost every night. Watching Angry Housewives, I could only really compare it to any High School Musical, if we added twenty to thirty years to it. Perhaps the Cabaret is simply killing time until Rocky Horror starts.

Bat Out of Hell: The Meat Loaf Experience

07 August 2009
Words by Conor Rowell
Photos by Hannah Booth

If you would generally do anything for love but you won’t do that, then the Blue Room has a show for you! Before tonight, I believed that a “rock opera” was simply an oxymoron like “fun run” or “gainfully employed”; but Bat Out of Hell has proved me wrong. The show was a fantastic tribute show that was just a glimpse of Paradise for any Meat Loaf fan.

The show began with two characters that seemed to just have come back from a Hot Topic robbery and while the girl had a unibrow, the guy had the neck brace from Conan O’Brien’s “In The Year 2000” sketches. And after the goth kids got moved to their background corners, the fated lovers jumped on stage and began to belt off the hits one by one. Effects-wise, the Blue Room hasn’t done better! Strobe lights galore and enough fake smoke from the smoke machine brings back eerie memories of junior prom when you went with that freshman and then the principal had to drive you home; mainly because of that freshman!

At its core, this rock opera will make you regret all the lack of Meat Loaf songs on your iPod and I can guarantee that 97% of all the audience members went home to download some more. The two-standout performers were the fated lovers, also known as Loki Miller and Samantha Francis. Their vocals were amazing and better than any singer on American Idol. On that note, unlike the previous concert, the Blue Room funded a very good sound system that rivaled many of Chico’s music hotspots; giving each individual instrument and voice a chance to be heard. While the four main singers were all dressed to impress, the band itself was dressed to go to Orchard Lanes right afterward.

All your favorite songs were played and were played nearly as good as the original tracks. The lighting and crazy purple knockout gas set the mood and gave Loki and Samantha beautiful images as they sang. And oddly enough, in the light, Samantha resembled a pre-addiction Amy Winehouse while Loki seemed to pull off his Meat Loaf ensemble. I am very proud of the Blue Room for doing such a well produced show that I wish I could say more but I won’t do that; I’ll let Marcus Anderson from Aubrey Debauchery fame have the final words, “Loki’s Dope.”

It’s All Happening @ The Blue Room

chico.synthesis.net/2009/07/its-all-happening-tour

I have seen so many things in my life: a man eating his own head, any number of fat kids on Youtube and now I can finally rest easy now that I have seen a concert at the Blue Room. Yes the theater opened its doors for the “It’s All Happening Tour” for one night only. And by the crowd it drew, it looks like one night may have been too many.
The sow started with your standard Jack Johnson-esque guy with a guitar, which the group of high school girls could only describe as “Hawt. Super hawt!” His time was quick and then we moved on to the acoustic folk singer, donned in the quintessential flannel. And then we have one of the headliners, Mandi Perkins. According to the high school girls again, she was like “pre-marriage Avril Lavigne” and I have to mention that her guitarist officially gave me hope in the rest of the show, a harbinger perhaps; he looked just like Russell Brand and soon my thoughts drifted to Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
The beginning acts were much like any given episode of the Partridge Family; it was awkward and uncomfortable but they had some singles that you sing under your breath when no ones around. The problem was that these aren’t local bands like usual, it seemed like Chico was just another tour stop. However, Chico’s own Lunar Sway took the stage and electrified the playhouse. Using keyboards and mounds of guitars, they really woke this reporter up and saved the concert review in general.
And as soon as they were finished, everyone piled out. That’s all well and good, but the concert wasn’t over! There was still one band left! I don’t know how it happened but over two-thirds of the crowd left, but they missed out on the best band of the night: Resident Hero.

The three guys from Los Angeles should have been the headlining band because they played brilliantly. The guitar hooks, the dark lyrics and their general stage presence was something I have not seen in a long time. And even between songs their banter was something to tune into, varying from ninjas to Bud Light. And I really respected how well they played considering the mass upheaval beforehand, but Resident Hero did a great job and everyone missed out on them but who stayed got to see some great rockers!

The Shimmies, Holy Rolling Empire & Dr. Yes! @ Café Coda (18 July 2009)

chico.synthesis.net/…/dr-yes-the-soulgazers-holy-rolling-empire-and-the-shimmies

I wake up at 3 in the morning in a cold sweat; my ears are wailing, I’m passed out on the floor and my best flannel shirt is stuffed behind the toilet: it must have been a Shimmies concert… I reach into my coat pocket and extracted six empty packets of “Sugar in the Raw”: ah, make that a Shimmies at Café Coda show!
Yes, I finally got back into the Chico music scene after realizing that my hearing was just too good at the moment.

On July 18th, Café Coda boasted a top billing including The Shimmies, The Holy Rolling Empire and Doctor Yes!. I would’ve guessed that the audience would’ve have lead out the door for this show, but it was surprisingly bare, considering the two Chico favorites. And flannel shirts missing in action as well, but an odd number of ska hats made up for that.
The Shimmies played first and started off the evening well, taking stage as true Coda veterans do. Fans flocked to the stage in a Jonas-esque fashion and kept the good tunes alive and well. Oddly enough, they didn’t play for very long, maybe getting four to five songs in. But you can only describe their shows to sex: fun while it lasts but always over a little too soon.

After some set-up time, Tucson’s own Holy Rolling Empire and lit up the stage with their eccentricity alone. The singer stepped to every beat and the guitarist was all too photogenic as well. But I must say that it was the drummer, who I’m fairly certain in his days off saves Sparta, who took the show when he took off his shirt and drummed the rest of the show with it off. For visiting us all the way up here, they did a great job and even have me considering a vacation to Arizona.

And thus we came to Dr. Yes!, or as I’d like to call it, “The Huge Microphone Nightmare of 2009!” Electronics began failing throughout the set but that didn’t hinder them at all. The only problem was that they were trying to have so much sound in such a small space so we got one sound that did make everyone space out and opened some chakras I’m sure. If you’ve never seen Dr. Yes! It would definitely benefit you to go and journey to another dimension with keyboards.

Twilight Zone Live! @ The Blue Room

Words by Conor Rowell; Photos by Hannah Booth

There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Blue Room!

Yes, The Blue Room has opened its door again and takes on the paranormal while blatantly plugging their sponsors within it. On a completely separate note, thank Synthesis for the blank drawing space in the Blue Room’s programs. You know our motto: Synthesis, exploiting your boredom.
This time around, Twilight Zone Live is doing one episode of the show but does it in that dark old fashion way. In Charles Beaumont’s Shadow Play, an inmate’s upcoming execution confounds and confuses all parties involved. This is one of the more acclaimed episodes of the series because of its inherent plot complexity and twists.

The production itself was enjoyable. Perhaps not the best acted or well-done show, but if you have a half hour to kill, you know where to go. And that would be my biggest complaint I suppose: thirty-minute show? I know, there’s only so much time you can get out of a twenty minute episode of the Twilight Zone, but when they used to run the production, it had at least two episodes a night. It’s a shame because right when you begin to get in your theatre mood, it’s over.
Another aspect was the scene transitions. During these, instead of the lights just dimming, multicolored lights would flash while a clock would tick. A very artistic idea but not executed as well. The flashing lights would seem better for a warehouse rave with a handful of E, but then again I could just be cherry picking.
I must apologize here. During the show, a child in the background began clacking the top of his Klean Kanteen down on the Kanteen itself, creating a noise that could inspire insanity. And if my review in anyway seems insane or even a little south of sanity, please disregard as the ramblings of very sensitive-eared reviewer. But bottom-line: If $5 for a live-acted Twilight Zone rerun is your cup of tea, then it would be well worth your money. If not, then thanks for reading!