Événement

THE CHANDLER TRAVIS PHILHARMONIC! Wednesdays in February!

Wednesday 2/2, 2/9, 2/16 and 2/23 - a 15 Year ANNIVERSARY residency featuring
THE CHANDLER TRAVIS PHILHARMONIC!!!
$5 advance and $5 at the door
8:00 doors / 8:30 show
www.chandlertravis.com

The Chandler Travis Philharmonic was born in the fall of 1996 at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, on the occasion of Chandler (best known for his "work" with the Incredible Casuals and Travis & Shook) doing a guest shot there with a house band led by multi-instrumentalist/singer Dinty Child. When asked if he would like to add any additional instrumentation, Chandler, having always hated when elderly bands run out of ideas to this extent, facetiously suggested "oh yeah, let's get some horns and chick back-up singers." Strangely, Dinty complied with the horn part, booking (among others) genius trumpeter Keiichi Hashimoto, and lo and behold, it worked!

Later on, cross-dressing drummer Rikki Bates, a pal of Chandler's from the Casuals and one of the more amazing instrumentalists on the planet, and Keith Spring, (NRBQ, Martin Mull) helped complete the picture. Since then, the band -all colorfully garbed 8 pieces of them, plus singing valet Fred Boak -have introduced the concept of alternative dixieland and omnipop to dumbfounded/delighted audiences all over Massachusetts (most frequently in Cambridge at the Middle East, Toad, or the Lizard Lounge; or on Cape Cod at the Wellfleet Beachcomber), and far beyond (San Francisco, Chicago, and especially New Orleans and New York City have proved particularly responsive -the Village Voice declared them "keenly entertaining", called Chandler "a true New England eccentric and a master of daft power pop", and the band "a blend of Ringling Bros. and Ra" that "puts the harm back in Philharmonic", and the New Yorker has repeatedly concurred.)

The band released its debut album, "Let's Have a Pancake", along with 22 other website-only full-length CDs (the improbable and ground-breaking RadioBall series) in 2000 as a means of welcoming in the new century; three more "official" Philharmonic albums followed, all on the Sonic Trout label, the most recent being 2007's 48 track opus "Tarnation and Alastair Sim." A new Philharmonic studio effort is expected this winter, following hard on the heels of Chandler's first solo release in a decade, "After She Left", which arrives in the summer of '09; meanwhile, additional new songs, videos, and recordings can be found on a regular basis at the unusually active website, chandlertravis.com.