"Put your money where your mouth is/ Put your money in your mouth," sang opening artist Brian Dewan, perhaps half sarcastically, half philosophically. With odd tales ranging from fruitless labor to Jimmy Carter, backed with accordion, autoharp, and his self-invented Melody Gin, Dewan opened the night on a suitably peculiar note. It's a shame how few got to see it. Thankfully, the floor started filling up by the time Athens, GA band Nana Grizol took the stage with their energetic, infectious pop. Although they were a bit too saccharine for my tastes, the crowd ate it up. And who could blame them? The horns sounded fantastic -- especially on "Motion in the Ocean" -- and Matte Cathcart's drumming continually threatened to blow a hole through the whole shebang.
After a hilarious slideshow made by Dewan (which you can find here), The Music Tapes' Julian Koster crammed onto The Entry's itty bitty stage with members of Nana Grizol (including Laura Carter and Robbie Cucchiaro of Neutral Milk Hotel) and some handmade gadgets (Static, The 7 Foot Tall Metronome). While the set was dominated by tracks from 1st Imaginary Symphony and last year's Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, it was also heavily laced with unintentional feedback and awkward mishaps. Obviously their performance was far from refined, but not only did these smudges accentuate the theme of the night (music as embodied, music as magical, music as organized sound that would otherwise "gnaw" at your face), they were also befitting of an artist whose scope just couldn't be contained within a venue that was originally designated as the coat room.
After hearing Badger (a singing saw) nervously sing "The First Noel," we played a secret game for roughly 20 minutes. The Music Tapes then returned to the stage to finish off the set, capping it with Major Organ's "Life Form (Transmission Received)." I left The Entry with an image of Koster bouncing a rubber ball on stage, already eager to relive the performance through the recorded version of "Songs for Oceans Falling."
