Kelly Rossum - Electropolis Reviews

In a truly multi-media event, local improv artists Electropolis combined film, music, spoken word, and the live sound effects to create a one-of-a-kind screening of the silent film Metropolis that caused the stunned audience to spring to their feet with applause.

The evening began with polite and heartfelt opening remarks from Electropolis' mayor, Michael Ferrier, who welcomed the sold-out crowd, thanked the community for being supportive of hep-cats like themselves and introduced the warm-up act, an experimental rock band from the Perpich Arts High School called Last of the Dinosaurs.

The opening act was an interesting combination of sounds, with bopping funk bass lines and disjointed rhythmic patterns; plucked out, wandering guitar parts; and a more familiar, more melodic punk vocalist. The lead singer spent a significant amount of time leaned forward with his hands on his knees, as if in a choreographed theater position that would be followed by a jump into jazz hands, and his vocals varied between Craig Finn-style rap-speak and full blown singing. The band would become arrhythmic and scattered at times, and then fall back into a groove so funky that many concert-goers couldn't help but nod their heads in time with the beat.

Soon it came time for the main course of the evening's electro-progressive gourmet spread, and the four men of Electropolis quietly took the stage and stood in silence as the opening credits of the film began to roll. Slowly the musicians began to add snippets of sound, with Steve Roehm adding bangs and clangs in time to the turning gears of a factory in the first scene. Electrumpet player Kelly Rossum added a few distorted moans that rang out and seemed to haunt their way into the scenes of the rest of the movie. Ferrier harmonized with Rossum on Electrosax and as the first scene ended Brian Roessler revved up to launch the band into an all-out rhythmic jam.

Built in 1910, the Southern Theater has a historical ambiance that complimented Fritz Lang's 1927 film perfectly, almost as if on a subconscious level. The venue is encased in weathered, exposed stone walls, and a cobblestone arch runs over the stage like in an old train station.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, Metropolis is a futuristic science fiction film that explores the effects of a 2026 industrial society that uses low-class slave labor to fuel its machines. In the live setting, Electropolis was especially proficient at producing the churning, groaning sounds of the machinery, so much so that the film and sound ran together into one unified piece and I often forgot to keep an eye on the musicians as individual contributors. One especially memorable sequence was a scene inside the office of the “Master of Metropolis,” which was accompanied by Rossum banging on the keys of an old typewriter with one hand and punching the feed button of an electronic calculator with the other, creating persistent clicking noises suitable for the stuffy atmosphere of an executive office.

After the first segment of the movie, the band took an intermission and Ferrier announced that they would be inviting several special guests to contribute to the soundtrack of the last half of the film. As the house lights dimmed once again, Desdamona took the stage and recited a beautifully constructed poem that highlighted some of the themes of the film, especially the recurring idea that “the mediator of head (thinkers) and hands (workers) must be the heart.” Filled with internal rhyme schemes and intense imagery, the words seemed to roll off of Desdamona's tongue and made the purpose of the movie all the more vivid for the audience.

Diana Grasselli came out next to sing vocals as the film provided a storyline text to explain the middle section of the story (some of the original negatives were lost or destroyed), and she provided a gorgeous, wordless accompaniment that brought to mind Enya's contributions to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

From the back of the theater, Bill Mike played an almost psychedelic guitar solo that highlighted a dream sequence scene in the film, and transitioned nicely into more trance-inducing beats from Electropolis.

The evening climaxed toward the end of the film, as the tensions rose on screen the musicians responded with a growing, anxious electric beat and the shrieking pangs of cello from Jelloslave at the back of the room. More students from the Perpich Arts High School trickled out into the aisles of the theater, swinging hose-like whirring tubes like lassos above their heads and creating a high-pitched humming that penetrated the room like a chorus of angry little flies. A riot on screen was reflected in the chaotic noise bouncing throughout the theater, and in that moment the attendees got to experience true, organic surround sound.

When the house lights went up and the crowd erupted into a standing ovation, I looked over at my father, who I had brought along for the ride. “Woah,” was all he could mutter amidst the clapping and the amazement, and I don't think that I could have agreed more.



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