Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise + Brian Dewan - Church (Boston, MA; Oct. 12, 2008)

For three hours Sunday night, Boston got a taste of what it’s like to live with dozens of transient musicians on a commune in Athens, Georgia. The Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise was marketed as a variety show tour, but was more like one long, creeptastic jam session. Before the collective took the stage, they showed the recently completed short film Major Organ and the Adding Machine, starring and with music from many of the Elephant 6, their friends and even their children. Part disturbing, part silly and part genius, the film set the perfect tone for the unusual yet enjoyable evening.

As the screen rolled away, a dozen or so musicians wearing paper animal masks took the tiny 10 x 20 foot stage: no less than four guitarists, two drummers, two keyboardists and a handful of people holding customized horns and wind instruments. Think cluster-fuck. The band opened with the raucous clatter of “His Mister’s Pet Whistles” from Major Organ and the Adding Machine, the album that preceded the film by a couple of years. All the musicians then shuffled their instruments and positions, launching into another unpredictable, psychedelic jam.

To explain the set list from here would be a daunting and futile task. In fact, a look at the written set list showed mostly just the name of the singer or songwriter or band (at least eight throughout the night). Between songs, you could hear questions on stage like “Who plays the bass on this one?” and “Is this yours?” While there were usually at least eight people on stage, there were always more musicians standing in the wings, peeking through the back door and occasionally joining in for a couple of measures.

Overall, the crowd was treated to songs by old-timer Elephant 6 artists Olivia Tremor Control, The Music Tapes, Elf Power, Scott Spillane, and William Cullen Hart along with newcomers and obscure side projects like Nana Grizol and Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t. And, of course, I cannot forget the 7 Foot Tall Metronome and Static the Singing Television, both treated as members of the collective.

Though most of the music was experimental, there were a handful of sweet and joyful moments, such as the crowd singing along to Olivia Tremor Control’s “I Have Been Floated.” Julian Koster, who seems like the soul of Elephant 6, added many sweet moments to the evening. In fact, as much as I enjoyed experiencing the Elephant 6 as a whole, I would’ve been just as happy with a whole set of Koster’s off-key falsettos, his singing saw and his oddly transcendent pieces so perfectly mixed, as in the Music Tapes’ most recent release Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes. Like all the artists that evening, Koster touched many parts of the stage, always enjoying himself, whether he punctuated his guitar playing with high jumps, pounded the drums with an ecstatic grin or bowed the saw with somber reserve. Late in the evening, after intermission and after the crowd had thinned, Koster told the audience, “We’ve all been playing together in Athens for the past month, and it’s been such a great time. It’s so wonderful to share this with you.”

Oh, and about that intermission. Koster invited visual, musical and performing artist Brian Dewan, whom Koster called one of his heroes, to play one of his illustrated filmstrips, which contemplated the threats of innovation. This followed on Dewan’s opening set of modern accordion folk songs with old-time sensibilities, spinning tales about “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Cadavers,” and “Mistletoe,” which, as Dewan warns, provokes a “riotous orgy of earthly delights.” Dewan is a bit of a legend in these types of artistic circles.

After observing so many Elephant 6 artists and friends in one place, I understood a hint of what it takes to click with this incestuous and quirky group. Yet they still maintain an enigmatic quality that makes you think you’ll never be invited to the commune. Early on in the evening, one of the artists said, “We’re Elephant 6, and so are you!” I’m not sure that’s true, but it was fun to pretend for a night.

For those who have patiently read this to know just one thing, here we go: No. Jeff Mangum did not show up. Julian’s been quoted to say that Mangum hopes to make it to Chicago or Louisiana, so good luck! The night before Boston, he appeared in New York, and though he only sang on a couple of songs, he made multiple headlines. His legendary status has reached rather epic heights, and I’m not immune. I would’ve paid triple to hear him sing anything from Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

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