The marching band I marched in was so not as cool as this one
Oh yes, everyone. I marched. How you do it is you roll on the balls of your feet and lift your knees in the air. Back straight. I played the saxophone, which, when marching, is connected to your neck with a strap but you have to hold it very high, parallel to your body. Then you play muzak versions of Rock Me Amedeus and high-step around the football field, and even though you can’t really see where you’re going under the duck-billed hat, you know that the crowd is seeing great patterns arrange and rearrange, and that you are part of something greater yourself. That teamwork is the way to go, ‘cause without teamwork, you couldn’t make those patterns on the football field, no sir, nor could your saxophone alone sound like Rock Me Amedeus. Valuable lessons INDEED for a young, impressionable mind. And then, those minds age, and are no longer young NOR impressionable, and are very happy to leave all marching-band related memories back in high school.
Enter Mucca Pazza, who we first saw last winter at Martyrs’. We were there for a Ulele reunion show (I was a fan, of the sound but mostly of the singer, Leina’ala, who I just heard is heading up a new all-girl rock band that I’m psyched to check out), and were just sitting there between sets, minding our own business, drinking our bourbon, and suddenly the crowd is peppered with a twenty-piece marching band in old-school, thrift-store, pimped-out uniforms. A guy playing the tuba pushed past us. A girl in pigtails on the trombone. Another guy marched with an electric guitar: he wore a motorcycle helmet with an amp welded to it and battery pack on his back. It was awesome. It was a party, goddammit. It was straight out of my imagination: you’re just sitting back in your life and suddenly there’s a marching band playing rock-and-roll.
A few months later, we saw them again in Wicker Park (the park itself, not the neighborhood) during, I think, Around the Coyote. All twenty of them were on their backs in the grass, totally rocking out and surrounded by this huge crowd of people. After a while, they got up and, still playing, marched off, and the crowd followed them. Like in Forest Gump, how everybody follows Forrest when he runs? (I’m sure there’s a better example I can use. Probably a biblical one) Anyhow, it was a riot. Two parts music, two parts public performance and a shit-ton of fun. We’re going to see them June 10th at Martyrs’ (scroll down) where they’re playing with the epiphany of a shit-ton of fun: http://www.lordoftheyumyum.com/. Should be a great show, folks.
Check ‘em out on Conan.