Arts Devo

Freakazoids, please report to the dance floor Friends, you know this is Arts DEVO’s favorite time of year. A time when my day job is to write and edit stories about all the local weirdness that makes living in rural Nor Cal bearable, and at night I get to act like an ass and run around a giant old theater hyping the talents of area freaks at the Keep Chico Weird Talent Show.

The talent show is next weekend, March 3, at the Senator Theatre (visit KCW site for details), and in addition to your host, Arts DEVO, and the 15 or so contestants, it will feature performances by official KCW spirit animals, local artist/design collective Chikoko, and the new official KCW house band, funky disco-punk duo XDS. The CN&R is also putting on another KCW art show, this year at the new Museum of Northern California Art, March 1-4, with an opening reception Thursday, March 1, 6-8 p.m.

And this week, of course, we drop this annual Weird Chico issue you’re currently reading. One of my assignments was to visit the headquarters of local funk-fusion band GravyBrain and report on the multimedia projects that the four members have been cooking up for their online GravyBrain Network (see Inside the GravyBrain). It was a fun, engaging interview, and a lot of great stuff was left on the cutting room floor, including the band members’ responses to my question about their exploratory live shows, which I present in the words of GravyBrain’s four characters:

The Scorpion (drums): “There are several songs—we try not to do them back-to-back—where we just completely bend the fabric. The beat goes away, and we just start getting really weird. … Sometimes I’ll just start playing with my hands … the tempo goes away, and we’re just like in this weird thing.”

Dr. Galaxo (keyboards): “We’ve definitely transported people, and us, to another place.”

Gravy (guitar): “There was one place in particular—Moonshine Tavern.”

Dr. Galaxo: “It was just one of the beer places [at Burning Man] .… And we had done some things to help our minds …

Captain Danger (bass): “I’m not saying we took mushrooms …”

Dr. Galaxo: “And we started playing and all of a sudden everything was just going super electric. … And he started going off on the guitar, and in my mind I’m seeing Gravy just ascending … and I’m just grabbing onto his coattails and we’re all just going, ‘Ahhhh!’ and people are just going fucking nuts!”

Captain Danger: “And I look up and we’re in this dome, and people on the dome are going fucking crazy. … That’s definitely one of the top three [shows] for sure. But we’ve had some amazing ones. … I can say, unequivocally, that Burning Man had a huge impact on this band.”

… and you know it In other CN&R arts-shenanigans news: The paper is still accepting submissions for the annual Poetry 99 contest. You have until March 14 to send us your poems of 99 words or fewer. Winners will be featured in the Poetry 99 issue coming out April 5. Visit newsreview.com/poetry99 for details.