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The Viennagram shock Rock Hunt
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photo by Dana Tarr
The Viennagram don't need loudspeakers and brightly painted signs to get your attention...but they certainly help.
In a startling display of sensory overload, New Bedford via Providence band The Viennagram blew the lid off the WBRU Rock Hunt semi finals at Jerky's last weekend, treating stunned onlookers to a finale performance as the opening band on a three band bill that included fellow hometown acts I Scream, You Scream and The Coming Weak, but stripping the title like frontman Alex Vienna stripped shirts for a costume change.
As famous for their psyche-wrecking stage show as their Kit Kat club style reverie, The Viennagram subjected their enraptured audience to live painting, a healthy dusting of glitter and tarot cards, and some seriously sinister songs. Call it showtunes from hell or the Phantom of the Opera's backstage bender, the band strut their way through barrelhouse blues, avant garde art rock and infectious medicine show jingles, all while eating light bulbs, shouting into makeshift megaphones and whipping up a few live drawings.
Before the show began, lead painter/screamer/set designer "Danger Dan" seemed shocked to learn that the band had something of a reputation, although he admitted to being the best painter, set designer and all around werido of all time. But after the show, it was hard to argue his point. With glowing skeleton hands dangling from the rafters and smirking, blodstained cheshire cats gazing into the crowd, it was a show, and a sound that could provide the soundtrack to the technicolor, Super 8, art house remake of Tod Browning's "Freaks."
It was pretty much a done deal from the onset, and while each band gave a solid performance, sometimes you really can't compete with zombie facepaint and killer costumes, especially when the music can back up the act, and to sell this kind of music, you really have to play up the pastiche. The music wouldn't sound the same if the drummer didn't play the whole set in boxer shorts covered in little red hearts, and if Alex Vienna wasn't constantly glaring at the audience from under the brim of his Mad Hatter top hat. It just wouldn't be right....
But it felt right to the judges, who voted for The Viennagram by a landslide. As winners of the semifinalist round, The Viennagram will join fellow finalists Baylock and two other yet-to-be determined bands at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in April, where the punk rock sideshow will undoubtedly pull out whatever stops they haven't ripped from the concrete borings to bring it all home.
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