Vagabond Opera rocks!
Cabaret lives!
by Christopher Key
Start with a cup of cabaret, add a soupcon of Cirque de Soleil, throw in a dash of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and you might have something resembling Vagabond Opera. Except that doesn’t begin to describe the Portland band that blew everyone away at the Wild Buffalo last night. The fact is that there is no easy way to describe a musical aggregation that incorporates opera, klezmer, gypsy and a dozen other influences into their act.
I truly love acts that can’t be pigeonholed and Vagabond Opera defies definition. I’m honestly straining for adjectives to describe this group and frankly admit that I have run out. They have created a niche all their own and all I can do is try to come up with some way to metaphor them.
Let’s start with the fact that I was invited to review their show at the Wild Buffalo that was supposed to start at 9:00. By 10:00 nothing had happened and I was getting a bit pissy because I was expecting to review a show, go home, write a review, and be in bed by midnight. Silly me.
Things started to happen a little after 10:00, but it was just the opening acts. They ranged from mediocre to awful and that’s neither here nor there. My purpose was to review Vagabond Opera and my journalistic soul demanded that I endure whatever was necessary in order to get to the heart of the matter.
It was after 11:00 before the headliners came on and I was beginning to lose focus a bit, as befits a man who is a year away from collecting Social Security. One thing I have learned in all these years is that there are some things worth waiting for and Vagabond Opera is one of them. They are nothing short of sensational and they are also indescribable.
Their musical influences range from French cabaret to Gypsy angst to Jewish celebration. And that doesn’t begin to encompass what they do. They create a European cabaret from the 1930s, throw in some Tin Pan Alley, and make it rock like a 1980s disco. Fortunately, there were no strobe lights or disco balls.
One of the things I take pride in is my objectivity. I go to events like this, observe with journalistic distance and report the facts. Vagabond Opera demolished that foolish pretension with their first notes. I was on my feet and wiggling like no one my age should. Their beat is that infectious.
A young theatre friend was sitting next to me and she had obviously clued in to Vagabond Opera some time ago. I kept trying to maintain my cherished objectivity, but she lured me to the dance floor where I frankly boogied my ass off. This is not something a reviewer ordinarily does. Well, excuuuuuuuse me. I couldn’t help myself. Vagabond Opera demands that you dance, regardless of whether you have any talent for it. So I made a fool of myself, dancing with a woman who is about the same age as my granddaughter. She was gracious enough to put up with it and I am very grateful. That’s what Vagabond Opera does to normally sane people. They have a formula that releases us from everyday existence and transports us into a fantasy that is addictive enough to be classified as a dangerous substance. Let’s hope the DEA doesn’t clue into what these folks do.
I have to fall back into Boomer vernacular and say that they are a happening.
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