The Beat Circus

The Fantastical Beat Circus show at Tonic, on the Lower East Side. Openers were the Circus' sibling band Alec & the Eyesores, followed by Brian Dewan, whose presence reminded me of David Lynch's eccentric sincerity. He ambled onstage dressed in khaki shorts and a green tie. Ordinarily he accompanies himself on electric zither but it had broken in transit, so tonight he backed his folk Americana on accordion & an electrified autoharp that was grafted onto an aluminum walker. He opened with "Kill For Peace" by the Fugs. Another of his tunes was about the invention of a robotic prosthetic appendage called "The Boston Arm." He finished his set with an enthusiastic medley of children's singalongs & playground taunts.

Now then, the mighty mighty Beat Circus. As usual they were joined by a few musical guests, notably Curtis Hasselbring from Golem on trombone & Julia Kent, formerly of Rasputina, on cello. Things kicked things off with a scraping rhythm on a washboard, and the audience was treated to a succession of subjects such as Deadwood saloons & Coney Island gangsters set to the tunes of Russian ballads, gypsy waltzes, drunken shanties, madcap twosteps, & of course their signature finale, the Kurt Weill-penned bootstomper, "Mandalay Song." Having been in the studio of late recording their followup album to Ringleader's Revolt, the band was in top form. I honestly have no idea why these guys aren't huge. Even those more conventional audience members who might squint oddly at the Nino Rota-on-a-killing-spree frenzy of the tunes must be amazed by the formidable musicianship of the band. Maybe it's just a matter of time. Until then at least we can take advantage of the lower ticket prices.

Revenge of the Bookeaters

Last Wednesday I went to the Revenge of the Bookeaters benefit for the 826 Writing Center. The show sold out at the lavish Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side. I hadn't bought a ticket ahead of time & barely squeaked in with one of the last standing room only tickets. Appearing on the bill were Jon Stewart, David Byrne, Sarah Vowell, Dave Eggers, John Hodgeman (the PC in the Mac vs PC commercials), Sufjan Stevens, a singer named John Roderick, & surprise guest Eric Bogosian.

Sarah Vowell read an essay (apparently completed four hours earlier) about mapmaker Charles Preuss who accompanied Fremont & Kit Carson on their western expedition. He left behind a diary written in a voice not unlike Marvin the depressed robot from Hitchhiker's Guide. "I enjoyed nothing but the mosquitoes." "I wish I had a drink." Bogosian read Preuss' lines in a dour voice. Evidently Preuss returned to Washington after the expedition &, not long after, hanged himself. I've read Vowell's Assassination Vacation & enjoy her wry approach to the quirks of history. During intermission she plugged the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., which is the front for the 826 Writing Center in Park Slope. Apparently you enter the Center through a swiveling bookshelf. She demonstrated some of the items that can be purchased there, such as human-sized suction cups for scaling walls. Meanwhile Dave Eggers roamed the aisles, giving hugs to donators who had given over twenty dollars, as had been promised.

Eggers wasn't a particularly good public speaker, surprisingly. He was disjointed & ummed a lot. He introduced a slideshow explaining the Center & another showing the collage work of one of the Center's star pupils. My favorite was about a graham cracker & a peanut who had gotten married, & the author speculated on what its offspring would look like. I wasn't very familiar with Sufjan Stevens. I've heard patches of Illinois, but not enough to recognize anything when I heard it. His set was quite good, kind of quiet, switching between banjo, guitar, & piano. And he had an ace band backing him. I'll give his album more attention one of these days.

Jon Stewart was expectedly funny. He read from the forthcoming paperback edition of America (a Book), while the Daily Show producer played the part of the historian who went over the first edition of the book, noting errors. He told of army attorney Joseph Welch's famous attack on Senator McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" But according to Stewart what was less publicized was McCarthy's retaliation, which was: "Yes, I have a sense of decency, but I left it on your mother's nightstand." A very whitehaired David Byrne came on last & played a country set, including a few countrified Talking Heads tunes. He was joined for an encore by Sufjan Stevens, who seemed uncertain & nervous to be there. Maybe he didn't know the song well.

It was announced later that, aside from the money raised from ticket sales, they had made an additional $1500 just by passing a bucket around. Which goes to show how valuable Dave Eggers' hugs must be.