BARRAGE

I, Monique and Anne-Michelle saw the music group Barrage last night. Correction...the talent chosen to open for Barrage was the hosting High School Orchestra, so we saw them too. They played a weird mish-mash of notes that mostly resembled a song. Maybe it was intended that they create a surreal and craggy environment, transferring us from a high-school auditorium into LSD land! They played the song standing up, so I'll give them an "A" for effort but they were mostly mishmashy. The parents were proud. The orchestra played a number with Barrage later in the show and played reasonably well that time. 

But, Barrage blew my mind. The 8 person band--an eclectic recipe created by adding one part German, 4 parts Canada, one part Arizona, one part Nashville and one part Hanover Pennsylvania, rose like yeast in a seriously heated school auditorium (like someone turn down the heat!) and cooked a musical meal containing all the musical food groups. The guitarist, drummer, base guitarist and 5 violinists swirled around the floor playing classical to jazz to modern, to bluegrass to rock-n-roll. Fingers pressed strings, rocked bows, strummed frets and rocked beats at tempos that sometimes defied time and space. Can one really fly through strings at the exact moment the bow passes while swaying back and forth and up and down and all around? I'd say it's like the game where you have to draw a house with an "x" in the middle without your pen/pencil ever leaving the paper. One solves the puzzle when one crosses the border of the house itself...when one "colors" outside the lines...when one draws slightly outside the house can one solve the puzzle--a life metaphor I would suppose. I believe last night the concert took me on an inter-dimensional journey. I felt a little dizzy at the end. Try crossing several dimensions in one night and see how you feel.

My dizzieness might've been attributed to the wicked hot auditorium and the lack of water available...naw...that's not right...the inter-dimensional party is a better story.

That's how it happened from my point of view. Check Barrage out if you get the chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gXrKvmcHpI