Last Saturday, Sept. 27th, 2003, Zoltan the Magnificent, Daphne the Painted Lady, Headless Horsehead and Red Hunter played at Zen Sushi in Silverlake. The show went on at around 9:24 pm.
The first band to go on, Zoltan the Magnificent, was a very theatrical group, indeed. I thought they were all actors until a brother of one band member told me otherwise. Zoltan, the speechmaker/singer, was wearing an opera cape, and a sequined robot masquerade/kabuki mask. The drummer had his face totally covered in a Halloween Michael Meyers mask, and the mixer/tambourine player covered his entire face in a long nose beak mask and was wearing a hoody. The trombonist wore sunglasses and a headband. The guitarist, who happens to be a computer programmer by day, wore a feathery sequin mask with a hoody. The mixer is a kids' tv show host. Zoltan is a transcript writer for Tony Robbins. The other band members happen to be a mix of musicians. They all live in the same building.
The music was like performance art. It was entertaining. Though Zoltan could spare the speeches, he was a good frontman. Some of Zoltan's lines included "Chaos to the dancing star." He jumped around a lot, had empty 5 gallon water bottles, and banging them against each other and against the floor. The mixer was mixing on a boombox, which was pretty creative. He played static from the radio, and samples from various radio stations, which complemented the band's unique style of jazz.
Daphne the Painted Lady comprised of a singer/guitarist and a guitarist/musician and a drummer. The singer is dating the guitarist from Zoltan the Magnificent. The drummer was the only male. The music was very harmonic and pretty, reminding me of 70's pop. However, on almost every song, the heavy drumming didn't seem to fit in. I was under the (false?) impression that the bad was too scared to trust the strength of the lyrics or melody, so they brought in drums which inflected unneccessary mipact or drama. I liked some of the songs, though, and some of the lyrics were poignant, like "I know the shallowest guy on the block." and the song "I walk through the streets at night" was up there among my favorites for this band. The singer bellowed, like Kathleen Hanna. It had a nice rising intensity, song composition and harmonies.
The Headless Horsehead included some interesting instruments, like a flute, and the trombone played by Zoltan's trombonist. The line of one of the songs I liked best were ' You cannot take away our homes, fuckers" and the song "Here and There."
Red Hunter, which is comprised of the singer Brian Hunter, who also plays acoustic guitar, Bill the drummer (who played in three of the bands,) and Rob on the bongo. Brian was compelled to leave three days from the concert to tour the United States forthree months. He played "Snake Charmer," and his vocals reminded me of a mix between Grace Slick and Andy Kaufman. He also sang a fun drinking song, "Now You've Got a Curse." Red Hunter reminded me of the Violent Femmes. It had jazzy chords, and jazz drumming. The guitar solos sounded influenced by Violent Femmes or the Dead Milkmen. The song "Wild Sons of Wealthy Fathers Chase the Great Unknown" reminded me of an Irish ballad.
They played an encore.

Red Hunter is a composite of everything that is wrong with the fast food industry, and all that is right with dumpstered banana bread. Now put that to music. This was a bon voyage to Red Hunter.

a few facts about the above article:

Zoltan has actually never been a transcript writer for anyone. his only encounter with a computer or typing device of any kind happened when he and a small gang of gypsy bandits used a stolen laptop as a cutting board for some ground up Ritalin.

Red Hunter's real name is not Brian Hunter. Brian was a name given to Red Hunter by an oppressive puritanical society influencing his birth parents. As soon as Red became aware of this, studied the histories of the cities of his ancestry--including Transylvania and Budaphest--and found his real name in the myths and folklore. Red Hunter is Red Hunter's real name. He does not have a band, and currently travels the world in a magical toyota powered by tequila.

"the curse" is a song about women controlling the world with men as their lust-clouded puppets.

"the drinking song" is about a party at the end of the world. it is the greatest song ever written, and only three people know this.