Music review
Music Is Art
Saturday and Sunday at Chameleon West Studios, Franklin and Allen streets
"This is absolutely unbelievable," says Robby Takac.
He smiles as he gazes out the the second-story window of his Chameleon West studio, surveying the Music Is Art festival he and a close-knit group of friends created, spread out in the parking lot below him.
"It's all a huge cooperative. This is a great role model of how we can make this whole thing pop, of how we can make things work around here."
It's mid-afternoon on Sunday, day two of Takac and Co.'s second annual Music Is Art Festival, which runs concurrently with the Allentown Art Festival.
Takac is exhausted and exhilarated, his voice shot from saying hello to every single well-wisher, fan - heck, even American Idol also-ran John Stevens - who came his way during the festival, which Takac never left or even, it seems, took a break.
One got the sense that the festival was winding down by Sunday afternoon as Takac viewed his creation from Chameleon's second-story perch, after some 60 bands, dozens of artists, and a variety of dance troupes have entertained an enthusiastic crowd comprised equally of the curious who just wandered in and the faithful, who came Saturday morning and stayed 'till the bitter end.
But Takac had one more ace up his sleeve, and for those who stuck it out, the end would be anything but bitter.
Backed by members of the band Anatara, Takac plows through a set of Ozzy Osbourne covers, undeterred by his shredded vocal chords, and buoyed by the response of the crowd. Then he exits stage right, grabs his Yamaha bass, and leans into the mic.
"I'd like to introduce a very special guest to sing, 'cause God knows I can't sing another note," he laughs, and out walks Takac's Goo Goo Dolls partner John Rzeznik. The place explodes.
It's a fitting cap to what can only be called an unqualified success of a weekend. If you've any love at all in your heart for the independent arts scene in Buffalo - be it fine art, photography, or rock 'n' roll - Music Is Art had something to offer you.
On Saturday, mid-day stellar sets from a reformed Jumpers, fronted by Terry Sullivan, and powerhouse power-trio the Michael Lee Jackson Band, set the tone for what turned out to be a killer lineup running past dusk.
There was the heavy soul of Summer Reign Revolution, the power-pop of McCarthyizm, the experimental techno of Takac and friends' Amungus, the roughshod beauty of Allison Pipitone's set, a stellar performance from hard-folk ensemble Anatara, the progressive onslaught of Blood of Jupiter, and then a string of sets beginning with Mark Freeland and continuing through performances by Scot Celani, Johnny Nobody, Seven Day Faith, Doombuggy and the Juliet Dagger. It could've been overwhelming, all of this, but the music flowed ceaselessly, as performances on the interior and exterior stages flip-flopped seamlessly. This writer's been at Lollapaloozas that ran less smoothly than this.
Returning Sunday, it was unclear who'd slept and who hadn't, as artists, musicians and fans plowed ahead and space and time began to blur.
Lance Diamond, the Irving Klaws, Floozie, newcomer Heather Mere, and the gloriously heavy & twisted Dai Atlas kicked it into high gear; artists like Z. Manzilla, who "performed" on a canvas in real time in the parking lot, kept the pitch high.
And all of it ran like a runaway train into the Goos' festival-ending set of "Black Balloon" and "Broadway," songs whose lyrics offer an appropriate blend of hard reality and optimism, for a festival set on transcending the former and reveling in the latter.
e-mail: jmiers@buffnews.com