Hey, look, Fishbulb figured out how to get images working! It's a Halloween miracle!
People often ask me, "Fishbulb, how come it says at the top of the page that this blog is about 'politics, entertainment, and current events,' but all you ever talk about is politics, which happen to be current events?" Well, I casually respond, you should just consider yourself lucky. This was originally going to be a food blog! But still, I understand the point, and so this afternoon I'd like to take a break from the various foul deed afoot along the campaign trail and tell you a little story.
A long time ago there was an infamous knot, known as the Gordian Knot, that no one could untie. People came from miles around to give it a shot, but no one could even come close to untying it, which was a real pain for poor Gordias, who just wanted to be able to walk around town without his shoes tied together. Then, Alexander the Great showed up, saw the knot that supposedly could not be untied, and sliced that friggin' knot in half with his sword. Bam! Knot untied. A totally inventive approach that was recognizable as a solution to the problem, yet was still totally unlike anything anybody else had thought to try. When you see an Isto show, you are the Gordian Knot, and he is Istoxander the Great. You'll come away from it totally split apart, able to tell others in recognizable terms that you saw a concert, but unable to fully describe what just happened.
Isto, A.K.A. Chris White, is a musician who at once seems like he has stepped out of another era, and yet is uniquely suited to our own. Upon first appearance, he looks like any other big, goofy guy with an acoustic guitar, the sort that can be found on any college campus, or at least any college campus worth visiting. But Isto is no mere strummer, hacking his way through Grateful Dead covers - although he does possess an encyclopedia knowledge of classic and folk rock and has been known to cover a wide range of songs, converting them all into his own inimitable creations - he is highly trained and unquestionably gifted. Isto's voice is that of a crooner, like Bing Crosby, tinged with a robustness and an easy vibrato carried over from his years of training as an opera singer. As a guitarist, he is capable of beautiful classical and jazz pieces, but most often he keeps to familiar, jaunty chord progressions that underscore, but never overshadow, his lyrics.
And what lyrics! Influenced by the likes of Arlo Guthrie (whose 17+ minute epic "Alice's Restaurant" Isto once performed in a hair under twelve), Isto can provide moments of sly, and sometimes not-so-sly political humor when the mood strikes him. In other moments, he'll tug your heartstrings with the sweetest romantic phrases you've ever heard, drawn from a seemingly infinite well of sweet-natured longing ("Baby Leave a Candle Burning for Me" never fails to elicit a few tears). Other times he'll make you spray your drink all over the people in front of you with a sudden burst of gleefully juvenile gross-out humor. The brilliance of his performance is that he can complement each of these vastly different styles with appropriate tunes on the guitar, meaning he is free to mix and match lyrics and music however he pleases. You always have to pay attention, because a bittersweet ballad can change into a foul-mouthed exercise in the creative range of profanity available to the English language without any perceived change in either the wistfulness of his vocal tone or the dreamy tune of his guitar. And we're talking seriously depraved stuff, here. At last night's show at Manhattan's Sidewalk Cafe (94 Avenue A at 6th St.), Isto drew big laughs when several measures of frankly beautiful guitar playing led into a refrain of "I want to give the Mona Lisa a Dirty Sanchez." If you're unclear on just what that entails, just rest assured that the nice folks at the Louvre would not approve.
Add into this unexpected mix of surprises (both touching and hilariously terrifying) a healthy dose of scat riffs (of the "doo be doo" variety, not the scatological... well, okay, both) that would impress Cab Calloway, and you've got an Isto show in one neat little nutshell that still, of course, completely fails to grasp the experience. See, I didn't mention that those same scat riffs often devolve into the sounds of agitated barnyard animals, formless screaming, or the two intertwined. And even knowing all of that, there is no way to be adequately prepared. An Isto show is always full of surprises. In this particular instance, he was joined on stage by a flannel-clad oboist, who mostly stood off to the side, silently bobbing along before marking the end of each song off with "Shave and a Haircut," and who purchased a beer midway through the show with a coupon. And then there was the violinist (violist? Hard to tell) who joined Isto onstage at various intervals throughout the hour-long performance, joining in as freely and skillfully as if she had been playing these tunes with him for years, which, given that it was an evening of all entirely new material, she hadn't. And any deft musical instruction that Isto may have passed her along the way (like you see in movies, i.e., one guy says "in the neighborhood of B," and suddenly everyone knows the song) can be summarized by his whispered direction to her before one song, "Make noises."
For Isto, the standard contract of "artist plays guitar and sings, audience sits and listens" is only a loose set of guidelines. Last night's show saw him repeatedly sitting on the keys of a piano that happened to be onstage, chanting "Vote Nader" as a song unto itself (Nader is often referenced in Isto's political works, such as my in personal favorite, "The Banana Song," written for the 2004 election season), and repeatedly wishing the audience a heartfelt merry Christmas. As with so many parts of his performance, these antics are pulled off with such a straight face that the audience is left wondering if they're really getting the joke, or if they're part of the punchline.
So, suffice it to say that any Isto show is an experience, one that most people would be better off for having. But here's the cool part: you don't have to take my word for it! Check out his website (www.lumberjackisto.com) for videos and clips. Plus, sign up for the mailing list for the inside scoop on where he'll be appearing next in all his bearded glory. I believe he'll be sticking around the New York area for the foreseeable future, having just returned from a tour of the Midwest where, I presume, he blew their minds. So, if you're in New York, and you're looking for an evening of laughs, love, and quite possibly other words beginning with L, be sure to keep your eyes open for Isto.
We'll be back to political ranting soon, folks. Until then, Happy Halloween!
No comments:
Post a Comment