CLUB CHATTER
Danger: High Voltage!
If you don’t find pop music inherently hilarious and ridiculous, you probably should avoid this week’s Electric Six gig, taking place inside the Tralf Music Hall (622 Main St.) on Monday evening.
The Detroit-based outfit, masterminded by one Dick Valentine (known to his mom as Tyler Spencer), is to rock and dance music what Jack Black and Kyle Gas’ Tenacious D is to open-mic-night folk music: a big red rubber nose and a pair of floppy oversized shoes.
Valentine and the Electric Six have made it their business to make a mess out of idiom and genre classifications. The band’s sound is close to impossible to pigeonhole. One minute, it’s unadulterated disco, the next it’s ’90s-style Euro-pop, then Kraftwerklike robot tones, and at some point during the evening, there’s likely to be a tribute of sorts to the late-great Queen singer Freddie Mercury.
Some people find this frustrating. I find it close to endlessly entertaining, and if you do too, grab your tickets for Monday’s show while some remain, through Ticketmaster.
It’s a not-insignificant plus that Local H and Golden Dogs will be opening the show. Doors open at 7 p. m.
Workman like
I met Hawksley Wo rkman, over the phone, about 10 years ago. I’d stumbled across some of his initial recordings, which were do-it-yourself numbers that hinted at a rather breathless talent, and I figured I’d try to track him down in Toronto, get him to speak with me for a piece I was writing in an independent music scene my then-friend, now-wife and I were putting together once a month back then. (The thing bled money, but it was fun.)
I found Workman, called him, and think I managed to say something like, “I’m really intrigued by your music,” before the guy leapt like a starving feline straight down the phone line. He continued babbling, eloquently, vividly and in a manner that frankly made me fear for his health, for the better part of two hours, without me asking a single specific question. This remains my favorite interview, ever.
In the decade that has passed since, Workman proved himself perfectly capable of living up to his own hype. He is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, a producer, a recording engineer, a songwriter and a flamboyant, startlingly energized live performer. At heart, despite the winning of Juno awards, the placing of songs on the soundtracks of mega-budget television series, despite the temptation that must be quite tangible to “go mainstream,” Workman remains a truly independent artist. His music is still delightfully quirky, refreshingly childlike and always impeccably crafted. That’s a pretty rare recipe.
Workman will arrive for an 8 p. m. show in the Town Ballroom (681 Main St.) on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve. One of the most compelling original independent bands to emerge from Buffalo in recent years, Here Come the Comets, will open the show. Tickets are available through Tickets. com.•
