Due to Christmas break, there were only two shows in Messiah's b-sides series this month, but lack of quantity was made up by quality. The first of these two trios was The Wiyos, a nostalgic-folk act that made me feel like I was seeing all the best bits of my grandparents' record collection performed live. Fresh off a national tour with Bob Dylan, who handpicked them to open, the tightly harmonizing multi-instrumentalists enthralled us with a ridiculously wide variety of original compositions ranging from bluegrass to polka, including a soon-to-be recorded suite based on The Wizard of Oz. Their impressive array of instrumentation included everything from upright bass to kazoo, the latter even managing not to come off kitschy; kitsch could hardly come from such impeccably dressed, consummate professionals.
As John Cleese was fond of saying, "And now for something completely different..." The Andreas Kapsalis Trio is an instrumental group centered on guitarist Andreas Kapsalis, who plays a percussive fingerstyle not far removed from that of Alex Brubaker, a friend of mine who has been covered here before and was influential in bringing him to Messiah. Not content to play solo, Kapsalis spices things up with a pair of percussionists, adding propulsive polyrhythms to his original film scores and interpretations of other improvisation-oriented musicians' work. A perfect close to the semester, the trio provided excellent background music for those studying for finals while captivating those who needed a break with an intense and technical performance.
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