“A Sonic Spectacle”

Cascadia Weekly; Bellingham, WA

RIGHT NOW, at bars and nightclubs across the country, it isn’t navel-gazing purveyors of indie pop or raucous rocka- billy bands that are drawing crowds and packing houses at un- precedented levels. Instead, it’s the acts that promise a more well-rounded entertainment experience—cabarets, circus acts, vaudeville troupes and the like—that have proven to be hotter than the flame at the end of a fire-eater’s torch. Bellingham is no stranger to this sort of
unorthodox entertainment—with crowds showing up en masse for the traveling talents of the Yard Dogs Road Show and the MarchFourth Marching Band—and we’ve shown ourselves to be far fromimmune to the effects of such intoxicating diversions. While all this exposure for cabaret-style nightclub acts is undoubtedly good for those trying to make a liv- ing as practitioners of what are often old-time art forms, it also means that a person can’t just slap on a pair of striped socks and suck down some fire and call themselves an act these days. They’ve ei- ther got to be very good or bring something very new to the table, or, in the case of the Vagabond Opera, do a lot of both.

While many acts of the Vagabond Opera’s ilk ex- cel in stunts and trickery, content to let music play second fiddle, this Portland-based band’s emphasis rests squarely on the sonic spectacle of the thing. And “opera” just isn’t part of a catchy name—in fact, bandleader and mindtrust Eric Stern was actually in training, for a time, to become a full-fledged opera sing- er before abandoning this pursuit to run off to Paris to become a writer. While he did not write the Great Franco- American Novel, Stern did immerse himself in a variety of languages, musical tradi- tions and religious influences. Along the way, his travels deposited him and his big ideas in Portland, where he met several other likeminded individuals and the Vaga- bond Opera was born.

The band’s music consists of elements of the aforementioned opera, as well as klezmer, jazz, tango, swing and just about any other musical genre you can name all mixed up and stirred into a hot sonic stew, which is sung in no less than 13 different languages with a decidedly Eastern European Bohemian flair. Hav- ing a tough time imagining it? Perhaps it’s betterto think of Vagabond Opera in less-complicated terms, as a band of ceaseless charisma, boundless energy, impeccable musicianship and more than a little touch of both the naughty and exotic. Not to mention their penchant for bowler hats, suspenders and, yes, the obligatory striped socks. What this all adds up to is a band that’s spent the better part of the past five years
or so playing with everyone from the De- cemberists to Al Franken, and everywhere from the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to the stage at Boundary Bay, where they will show off their unique interpre- tation of the operatic arts at 10:30pm Fri., March 28. Along the way, they’ve
helped further what’s becoming known as the “neo-cabaret” movement and helped make opera, of all things, hip. Not bad for six people in striped socks.

Carey Ross - view publication’s website