Photo by Malcolm McCanles
Unfathomable Showscapes
Unfathomable Showscapes
Unfathomable Showscapes’ “Paranormal Vacation Tour” lands in Milwaukee for one night at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Thursday.
The ever-evolving avant-garde variety show extravaganza is for “lovers and haters of experimental music, comedy, improvisation, theatre and performance art.”
Hosted by Andrieu Todd and Silas Ritchie with drummer Alexander Adams (Lurker Bias Records), the evening will also include Susie & Harvey’s Adventures In Song-&-Poetry, Tamper Tamper, Neil Gravander, Alli Smith and Rosie Brandenburg.
Performance art and experimental music
According to Todd he became more interested in exploring the facets of what could both be performance art and also still be appropriate for an experimental music stage. Monologuing became a staple which then was supplemented by improvisational riffing and fourth wall breaking meta exploration of the absurdity of being on stage and participating in the ritual that was occurring in the moment.
The idea (Inertia Follies) was to do a variety show inside of a variety show, Ritchie says. “Andrieu approached me to be the band leader for the project. We did eleven different 15-20-minute performances of a late-night talk show style variety show with no guests.
“The joke was that the guests always cancelled and so we had to come up with something. We never worked with each other before and only had a few days of rehearsing before the first performance.”
Citing Netflix’ Stampdown special, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the work of Andy Kaufman as influences, the duo’s lean previous resume includes working with the Madison’s Broom Street Theater as a crew member, running sound and stage managing for summer stock theaters in New York, and in Ritchie’s case performing onstage as part of The Horns of Dilemma, the revolving horn section that joins the Violent Femmes for a few numbers.
With such loose parameters, the duo reaches for ways to describe a successful show. Todd suggests, “After what feels like purposefully driving a train off the tracks and then trusting we will land back on the tracks—I love when the ensemble feels like we all won the game and the audience leaves not entirely knowing what they just observed but feeling thoroughly entertained and a little exhausted.”
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Likewise, Ritchie says, “If we can carry the audience with us into the unknown and yield surprising and unexpected results, which amaze, intrigue and confuse them and us, I’d say we’ve had a successful show.”
