Space vs Time: Freely Improvised Jazz
Saturday, July 28, 8 pm; End Times Orchestra: Strings!. Check out the best progressive rock band in Grand Rapids as it flexes the muscles of its full string section. Rocky's Bar and Grill; $5.
The End Times Orchestra is sometimes a jazz trio, sometimes a marching band replete with dancers, the house band for West Michigan's Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, and a 9 piece performance art/rock opera powerhouse. Led by polymath Eno Diamond (Corey Ruffin) on vocals guitar and woodwinds, the band plays his original epic and sweeping compositions in a new style he dubs "pop operetta".
Paying homage to the melodramas of Gilbert and Sullivan, the tounge in cheek revivalisms of the Bonzo Dog Da Da Band, the phraseology of The Mothers of Invention, and the out there passion of skronk noise jazz king Albert Ayler; The End Times Orchestra is most assuredly like nothing you've ever seen before. The End Times Orchestra is your band for these here End Times. Every song is about the old fire and brimstone Apocaylpse; how it affects relationships, what we may reflect upon or do as we experience it, and of the emerging new world from the ashes of the old one.
Cautionary tales or tounge in cheek humour? You decide. The End Times Orchestra, thanks to its central involvement in Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, brings with it a consistent track record of sold out shows at the Sazerac Lounge on Plainfeld; on a Sunday night! Corey is eager to take the ETO out further and bring its unique music to more audiences all over west michigan. Don't pass on any opportunity to see this amazing band!!!!
Please contact Corey at enodiamond at hotmail.com to book the End Times Orchestra.
From Grand Rapids' Music Revue:
Grand Rapids musicians have never lacked in uniqueness, but every once in a great while the best minds come together to not only break the mold, but shatter it. This is the case with The End of Times Orchestra. Their debut album, a two disc set, is a revelation of vocals, masterful violin solos, and intricately molded percussions, this well crafted conglomeration of colorful insanity and intrinsic grooves is sure to capture the imagination like no other local band can.
A cross between drunken pirate serenades with the intense vibes only a ringmaster on mescaline can deliver, this hybrid of genre-bending circus-rock is a shoe in for those who appreciate music outside the bun. If Tevye of Fiddler on the Roof had a favorite band, this would be it; on the other hand... it would still be it.