This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly's music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city's music scene. Read the latest column here.
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Ashley Belanger
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Man Forever at Will's Pub
Recently, the erudite
Accidental Music Festival made the shift toward a concert series format à la the
Civic Minded 5. The latest installment (Dec. 15,
Will’s Pub) was headlined by
Man Forever, the experimental percussion music project of
Oneida’s Kid Millions. Like
Trampled by Turtles just did recently, Man Forever uses
local musicians in each of the cities it performs on tour. This stop featured
Thad Anderson (performer, composer and percussion professor at UCF),
Jeremy Katelenic (Legendary J.C.’s, RobotMan),
Ian McLeod (ISM),
Matt Roberts (three-time Accidental Music Festival alum),
Kaylee Bonatakis (UCF alum) and
Matt Peters (AMF alum) to populate Kid Millions’ seven-piece – I will not call it a
drum circle – percussion ensemble.
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Ashley Belanger
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Thad Anderson
Be it strings, horns or guitars, seven players of most instruments is imaginable. But
seven drummers – let alone ones who don’t play together full-time – has all the potentiality of a
highway pileup. So credit to Kid Millions and the hometown corps for not being a
loud popcorn bag live. Instead, this centipede of hands and sticks began like
orchestrated rain. Then, when they shifted en masse suddenly to the low end, the mounting effect was like an
advancing tornado. From there, it only opened wider with a tribal drone that conjured sweeps over untamed landscapes. Each composition of the set was an odyssey of endurance drumming and, once he got back on his native footing behind a full kit for the finale, Kid Millions proved himself a tireless beast of a locomotive, pounding with all limbs for almost a
half-hour straight. Maybe Man Forever is no
SSLOTS, but this performance was an effective and moving rhythm quest.
Before the big spectacle, some locals performed pieces that were more intimate on their own imported sound array, which – paired with their extraordinary instruments – was on an
entirely different sonic cloud. Thad Anderson hit otherworldly planes by taking both mallet and bow to the bells. One of the night’s highlights was
Matt Roberts and Kaylee Bonatakis performing
Tristan Perich’s “Observations,” a chimingly rhythmic composition that pairs percussion with 1-bit electronics. It’s a symphonic collision of
clang and blip that yields an unexpected and stunning fusion that rings like a beautiful alarm.
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Ashley Belanger
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Kaylee Bonatakis and Matt Roberts performing Tristan Perich's "Observations"
As the guy up in there knocking back the Bud Heavies, I always feel like a bit of a
fanny-pack tourist in these academic circles. But I consider it a blessing to be living in a place where there are things going on that can make me feel strange. By reliably presenting music that can – more than most – be considered
truly modern, the Accidental Music Festival continues to prove its place as one of the flagships for the city’s
non-rock contemporary music scene.
Follow Bao on Twitter (@baolehuu)
Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com