Four Day Weekend comedy troupe comes to Granada Theater
Cancel your therapy appointment. Leave the Prozac in the bottle. Skip church. Dallas has something better to offer – the Polyphonic Spree.
Last Friday night, the Polyphonic Spree played a homecoming concert at the Gypsy Tea Room after stints in New York and the UK They made believers of us all.
The formula is simple – 24 slightly awkward musicians (including, among others, guitar, French horn, flute, theremin and a 12-person choir).
Each member is dressed in white, baptized-down-at-the-river robes, playing grand, sprawling orchestral power-pop with gospel sensibilities and the underlying tenets of late ’60s hippie-ism.
Perhaps the formula isn’t that simple, but the effect sure is – a B-12 shot for the soul, the secular music of the Spree is more spiritually uplifting than most overtly religious songs out there.
Unlike conventional pop records, Polyphonic Spree’s songs don’t have varying melodies that rise and fall with verses, choruses and the like.
Instead, Spree take a chorus-like musical mantra and repeat it over and over again, building intensity as harmonies and trills are filled in by all the instruments and voices.
The result, quite simply, is a sonic orgasm – a big, hit-you-in-the-chest sound so glorious you just might see the guiding light.
All of this energy is harnessed by ex-Tripping Daisy lead singer Tim DeLaughter, whose bright and impassioned voice makes up in charm what it lacks in purely melodic appeal.
DeLaughter holds his hands aloft like a rock star/cult leader who knows he’s among his ‘people.’
However, one only has to look at his completely earnest, if slightly dopey smile, and know there’s no tinge of impure motives behind his antics. He’s just as moved by the music as everyone else.
The Polyphonic Spree is the kind of band that makes converts, not fans – during the show one wants less to buy a T-shirt than to don a robe, get onstage and join the fun.
Even the most jaded hipster can be moved by the music, and more than a few at the Gypsy Tea Room started dancing and putting up their hands, old-school revival style.
In this way the Spree is sort of like a cult, but one of the best sort – they sing of the sun and happiness and believing in oneself.
Everyone can benefit from a Polyphonic Spree show, and considering the fact that once the chorus is sung a few times you essentially know the song, there’s no prior listening experience necessary.
Take your struggles, cares and troubles to the show. The music may not make your life better in the long run, but it will make you forget about them for a while.
The Polyphonic Spree could become a worldwide phenomenon or just a novelty act. Either way, everyone should check them out at least once. Odds are, you’ll never want to miss them again.
