As I mentioned int the last post, Lazendorf came and played a concert on Thursday. They call themselves an experiment, not a band. They rarely record songs and have nothing written down. Lanzendorf is made up of Bryan Devendorf, Scott Devendorf, and Ben Lanz. Bryan and Scott are brothers, both play with The National. Bryan is the drummer and Scott is the bassist. Ben often plays with The National, among other groups and they all seem to be good friends.
I walked into the concert at Packard Hall. Packard often has classical music, I could tell this was going to be different. The hall was set up with three tents, two on the stage and one up above. Inside the tents there were some lanterns and the stage lights were dimmed down. Lanzendorf walked onto the stage with green jumpsuits on, they did not say a word and began playing. The music was like being in a trance. It was incredibly mellow, they were jamming the whole time improvising every song. They all had a true mastery of their instruments and the digital looping equipment. There was a surprise band member whose name I think was Kate. Kate was holding a microphone and would hold it up to the amp occasionally. Then out of a secret door a man with a beard. also wearing a green jumpsuit would emerge fiddle with something and then leave. Ben would occasionally start singing incomprehensible lyrics and then stop. It was hard to know if they played one continuous song or many songs without pause. After about one hour of playing they stopped, people did not know whether to clap or remain silent.
Ben took the microphone and said a few words of thank you for being at Colorado College and being able to share their music. Then, they picked their instruments back up and the concert continued. They played for another half hour, there were times when it seemed very distorted and others when it seemed incredibly melodic. After the music stopped some people started leaving, but others started coming. The concert has a very different feel than most I have ever seen. The ebb and flow of people made the concert a lot less static than most. On the whole I really enjoyed the concert, the distorted feel made the music exciting and the melodies served as a good relief. I was incredibly impressed by how well they were able to play together especially knowing that they were improvising. The concert had a magical quality that was great to see. I am glad to know that Packard s has now seen more than just lovely classical music.
