Sunday, September 16, 2007

Electric Junk Hits The Street

Electric Junk Band @ The Atomic Stage, Hampdenfest, Baltimore, MD
September 15, 2007

The Electric Junk Band knows how to distribute their creative cycles. With feet and spare drum sticks to go around all the percussive time-keeping elements are spread around the trio. Even the guitar strings and Realistic synthesizer are subjected to a good smack from the mallets from time to time. Even breath is harnessed into the service of sound with harmonicas and a kazoo.

The slip-shod roughness and deliciously unpolished sound gives this Delta Blues outfit surprising charm and credibility. Pushing through an equally rough patch of technical issues at the onset of their set, with various parts of the band popping between extremes of amplified and inaudible, the quirky unpolished gem began to emerge before the backdrop of the setting sun behind the Falls Street traffic light cycles. At the fringe of the Hampdenfest - a street fair for a community that revels in fringe - capping off both the Avenue and conclusion of the festival it was hard to imagine a more fitting final impression than this abundance of quirk and rattle.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At first it soundedlike alot of noise, then this really cool beat came through, then all of a sudden 3 quirky white guys turned into 3 old black men sitting on the porch in the Delta, I really enjoyed it.-M.-