REVIEW: The Music Tapes, Nana Grizol and Brian Dewan at BACKSPACE 2/21/09

Let me be the first to say, Julian Koster still doing it! Julian is even more "Julian" than ever! His first tour in over ten years is off to a magical start. He brought the whole family - the Seven Foot Tall Metronome, Static the TV, Christmas tunes (in February) on The Singing Saw, a giant plastic camel full of memories, oh, and dueling drummers with some girl named Laura Carter and Theo from Nana Grizol.

A Music Tapes show is reminiscent of a Christmas pageant.... in another dimension. Brian Dewan's famous home-made oscillating instruments and nursery-rhyme-meets-dreamlike-eduction film tied the whole show together with a very "Dr. Seuss" tone. Sandwiched between the two was Nana Grizol, who's melodic tw-indieness really blew away the crowd. I had so many people come and whisper in my ear how wonderful they were.

The highlight of the show, however, was when Julian took the entire crowd of fans outside on to the sidewalk to play a game. The tour is still going, so I won't give it away... let's just say it involves fire and may have been the funnest thing I've ever done in the middle of someone's set! This show did not disappoint, in fact, I watched the only handful of skeptics in the room convert to huge fans right before my eyes. This interstellar circus is a real treat. Imagine having the Flaming Lips play in your living room? Well, it's kind of like that, only cuter.

A MUST SEE: Please take a moment to check out Brian Dewan's site dewanatron.com