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Several years ago, a couple months into a budding romance, I decided to assemble some mix CDs to impress my new sweetheart.  Armed with pretty good instincts and sage advice from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, I confidently set about cataloguing the contenders, sorting them thematically and paying painstaking attention to the aesthetic arc of the running order.

I decided to put a loosely nautically-themed collection together with songs about wanderlust thrown in for good measure.  Finding sensitive, introspective songs for the mix was easy ("Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "In the Aeroplane over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel, "Nightswimming" by R.E.M.) but I needed something for a change of pace.  Something playful.  Something sexy.

Alacartoona's slinky and irreverent "Every Saint Needs a Sinner" did the trick.  Its call-and-response vocals, bawdy humor and sailor's polka shuffle reminded me of salty ocean air on the open seas.  It was just the spice my compilation needed.

Years later, the song-and the band itself-has withstood repeated listens.  It helps that Alacartoona's sexy and sophisticated take on early twentieth-century European cabaret is inherently anachronistic.  With bohemian lyrics and period costumes, the group's theatrical music blends in flourishes of modern pop, folk and jazz.  If the Decemberists or the Dresden Dolls were your old school buddies, Alacartoona was the sexy sister who'd always leave home to go backpacking in Europe.  You know, the one you'd always wanted to score with.

These days, sister must be tired.  Fresh off their ambitious, exhausting "Night is the Mirror" DVD shoot (check out Scott Easterday's review of the culminating live performance of that project, also in this week's issue), Alacartoona recently returned to Jardine's for their monthly Second Thursday Happy Hour Show.

Things kicked off as expected: anyone who's ever been to an Alacartoona gig or has a copy of their debut CD, Songs from the Show, knows the introduction to "Willkommen" by heart.  More than just an opener, it's the perfect primer for the uninitiated, welcoming the audience into the world of Alacartoona:

The charming and sultry Ruby Falls (Erin McGrane, vocals and guitar) and bombastic Providence Forge (Christian Hankel, vocals and bass) handle most of the narrative duties.  Overton Woolridge (Kyle Dahlquist, vocals, accordion and assorted horns), with his deliberate, somnolent vocal delivery, provides an occasional change of pace.  The only member of the band who doesn't sing-or even speak-is Bachelor Calwood (Gregg Jackson, drums), who is content to anchor the group with his intricate rhythm work.

The band seemed relaxed and recovered from their recently grueling schedule but the crowd needed a little coaxing and cajoling to start the evening.  I was a bit surprised, having seen the raucous reception they'd received during "Night is the Mirror" and their other Second Thursday shows here at Jardine's.  This was, after all, home base.  The venue featured an Alacartini cocktail special on these nights and the band even joked about a new fish entrée, the AlacarTuna.  But in the end, you can't rely on specials alone.  Fortunately, Alacartoona can trust in its terrifically catchy and witty music.

These songs speak of dysfunctional love and restlessness.  On this particular night, songs like "For Us," "The Apartment," and "Loves His Lover" were a cocktail of absinthe and adultery, deceit and inexplicable devotion; "The Lesson" and "The Walk" served as cautionary tales of lust and excess.  Beyond the domestic and romantic angst were clever tall tales such as the irrepressibly wicked tango of "Perpetual Gin" and the melodic narrative of "Sailor Joe."  By the time Alacartoona wrapped their first set with-what else?-"Every Saint Needs a Sinner," the crowd was no longer shy.

During the brief intermission, the members of the Barclay Martin Ensemble arrived in a display of support and solidarity.  Erin McGrane appeared on B.M.E.'s 2008 release, Dawn, and performed with the group until her own busy schedule made it difficult to do so.  B.M.E. was slated for its first performance at Firefly Lounge later in the evening and it was a pretty classy gesture for the gentlemen to swing by right before their own show.

As I'm telling B.M.E.'s bassist, Rick Willoughby, that I'd be following them over to Westport later that evening, Ruby began Alacartoona's second set with a poem I didn't recognize.  The band often effectively incorporates original monologues, spoken word poems and dramatic vignettes into their work.  This one was a sultry piece of beat poetry-bohemian, self-referential and almost religious in tone.

It set up a strong second act featuring many newer songs including two new favorites of mine.  The first was "Drowning All My Sorrows," which featured Overton singing with a lazy Chesire grin atop Providence's back alley meander of a bass line.  By the song's finale, both men are joined by Ruby in a trio of wry lament: "we're trying to drown all our sorrows but they're learning how to swim."

After Providence takes a turn with the ironically pleasant and sunny-sounding "Day After Day," Ruby flirts and cavorts through the audience with her skirt-flashing promenade in "Fluff and Tickle."  Then the band changes pace with easily one of their most aggressive songs, "First Contact," a staccato, militaristic machinegun-fire march featuring a throbbing five-string bass climax.

My other new favorite tune, "The Sneakers," was actually co-written by Providence's real-life daughter, Bishop Hankel, who has inherited her dad's sinister sense of humor.  At age four, she approached him with the concept, a fully-formed verse and the hook for this stalker's fairy tale.  It slithers along with a snake charmer's gait, warning that "when the sun goes down / if you should close your eyes / you know we'll come for you / then we cut / we cut / we cut, cut, cut, cut, cut." 

By the time we hear fan favorites such as the breezy, melodic "The Honey Won't Soothe the Sting" or "Just a Drink or Two"-always an uproarious highlight in live performance-the crowd is whipped up and losing themselves in the debauchery.  It's always such a wonderful sight to see.

And Alacartoona herself has gotten worked up for the rousing climax of "Where'd You Get That / Ruby's Lament," a theatrical suite that finds Ruby crumbling beneath the weight of junkie-ism and despair.  The languid refrain of this dirty bohemian fantasy--"we'll lie around all day"--belies the band's real-life industriousness.  They put in a lot of work to make it look this effortless.

It was time for me to make my way over to Firefly Lounge to catch the beginning of Barclay Martin Ensemble's show.  With a silent apology I left Alacartoona to her fate, the sounds of forlorn hound dog howls on Overton's trombone and Ruby's contrastingly playful laughter sending me out into the evening.

Check back next week for the second half of "Sinners, Saints and Mix Tapes," a special two-part edition of "The Steady."

Review:
Alacartoona
Thursday, June 11 at 5:30 p.m.
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO

For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com
www.alacartoona.com

GIGGIN' ON THE STEADY

Rick Willoughy of Barclay Martin Ensemble
Composer, Musician in
Quixotic: Lux Esalare
Friday, June 19 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, June 20 at 8 p.m.
Thursday, June 25 at 8 p.m., Friday, June 26 at 8 p.m., Saturday, June 27 at 8 p.m.
Spencer Theatre
UMKC Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry,Kansas City, MO

For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.quixoticfusion.com


Alacartoona
Wednesday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Californo's
4124 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-531-1097 or online at www.californos.com.
www.alacartoona.com

By Vi Tran

theSTEADY Managing Editor

Vi Tran began performing as a toddler in the refugee camps of Southeast Asia.  His fellow refugees took pity on this young and literally starving artist, giving him what food they could spare.

Kansas City audiences may recognize him as a theatre and commercial actor who has been onstage at Starlight Theatre, Coterie Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and the Theatre Gym or as a staff cabaret singer at the late Bar Natasha.

Vi serves as one of the Coterie Theatre's "Reaching the Write Minds" playwriting-in-the-schools facilitators and has contributed his talents to the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, the Crossroads Theatre Company of N.Y.C., Playhouse on the Square in Memphis TN and the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

He coordinates and contributes to "The Steady," a music and culture column at KCMetropolis.org.  In his spare time, he writes folk and pop songs.  He holds a MA in Theatre Directing and a BA in Theatre and English, both from Kansas State University.

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