Live Review & Photos: River City Extension, Accidental Seabirds @ Riverside Gardens Park 8-17-12

Music is the kind of intangible object/event that can, and often does, elicit time travel. Not literal time travel. Not even literary time travel (H.G. Wells, anyone?). It's the sort of travel that can take you "back" to a moment that existed in the sphere of time, because much like the supposition in Dr. Who, "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." Now you could argue that, due to the sudden and strong rainstorm that soaked everything in the riverside park that River City Extension were about to perform in was the cause that resulted in the band shunning all electricity and performing in the time honored tradition of wandering minstrels (acoustic, sans any amplification) to the moist but ardent crowd about them, this being the effect..you could be right. I like to think of it as some sort of cosmic divine providence that resulted in wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey travel to another point on the clock.

People are constantly surrounded by electricity, and experience music by hitting a few keys and marginally moving in their cushioned chairs. It's this sort of experience that makes me long for a time way before the proliferation of amplification, to when doo-wop groups got together on a corner and sang in a harmony so beautiful that angels wept and panties got moist. It makes me wonder what it was like back in medieval times, when there were a gaggle of minstrels performing tunes to their serf brethren. Elsewhere on the time map, I ponder what Cro-Magnon man used to rock out to. Human Beatbox? Blue Man Group style percussion? My imagination runs amok.

After a pleasant performance by Accidental Seabirds, who captured the vibe of a riverside park show (breezy, pleasant), and post-rain storm, River City Extension bequeathed to those that braved the heavenly dew in hopes of a shared musical experience a crash course in practical time travel. They did not have the luxury of amplification (due to possibility of death by electrocution). What they did have was a want or need to entertain the masses, in accord with the manner in which humanity has been entertained for centuries: acoustically, communally, and participatory. I could easily have imagined myself on that corner, in that kingdom, or around that cave, listening to the song of the human soul in all its unadorned and unfettered glory. Folk music? Well, if you boil it down, all music created by humanity is folk music. Some bands just do it better than others.

This was a good night.

-Jason I

www.rivercityextension.com

www.accidentalseabirds.com

Photos by Lazlo
(click on photo to see full size)

River City Extension

Accidental Seabirds