The Extraordinary Contraptions (please don't read that as Contraceptions, I had to retype this 3 times due to my brain not working right) are a steampunk inspired rock band hailing from HOTlanta (Atlanta for the not so hip. Somewhere south of here if you're grandma's reading this. Shame! Stop reading over your grandchild's shoulder). They lean towards the fantastical rather than settling for the mundane.
If I had to categorize them I'd say.... probably.... folk rock? I'm pretty sure that doesn't do them justice. A lot of what I heard reminded me a lot of The Dresden Dolls. So maybe calling them Vaudevillian Rock is more fair (I'm floored that spell checker knew the word Vaudevillian... but not steampunk. Don't worry, I learned it). The outfits were on the money for steampunk. A lot of thought was put into the make up as well. The whole performance had an otherworldly theatrical aspect to it. I was amazed that, for the most part, the band members did not break character when not performing. That's a kind of dedication I can really appreciate for this kind of unique show. While there was not a huge crowd that came out specifically for them, the crowd that did show also did their steampunky best. I would love to see what kind of crowd reactions they would receive if I had seen them at the Steampunk World's Fair. (On another note, I'm completely in love with Dimitri von Stadberg's electric ... orchestral bass). Not only did it look truly bizarre on stage, it sounded pretty damn good too.
Let's talk about the music for a bit. All of the instruments and playing was pretty good, not absolutely amazing for a slightly bizarre sounding rock band, but nothing that made me complain. They were down one band member (their drummer), so maybe it's unfair for me to judge without the full ensemble. Really where this band stood out the most was the vocal range and stylings of just every member of the band(the video doesn't do them justice). While they are all fantastic singers, I was most taken away by Sephora Bostwick. She was very enchanting. As far as the content of the songs themselves, lots of references to pirates and sea shanties. You could almost feel the nerd dripping off each member as they sang. I'd be very surprised if any member of this band didn't know their way around a D&D compendium. I mean, for fuck's sake, they had a song about math. I felt like i should have thrown my pocket protector on stage (fooled you! I don't own one. But if I did, it'd have to fit this shirt).
I like the venue, it has a gritty feel to it. But the biggest issue I have with smaller venues like bars is that the sound quality of the equipment causes the music to suffer. I felt like there were sound quality issues, but that's more having to do with the venue than their performance. I would have loved to have seen more interaction with the large ammounts of props brought to stage as well. I'm not even sure how, but with all of the lovely objects on display for the show it felt sort of weird that they were all just display pieces.
Anyhow, long story short, I now own their two cds. I blame this on some sort of subliminal messages stuck into their music. All those years of psychic self-defense training for nothing. Ra's Al Ghul will be so ashamed. I recommend at least checking them out, if not ordering a cd or two from them. Their first cd has been my go to cd hanging out in my car. Very useful for scaring the narwhals(normals) should they approach too close. (Crap! I meant to ask them where they got their cool little pins from...)
(all pictures were taken by DC Geeks, feel free to reuse them, just give link back love and credit). That video is not ours, which is why it's just linked.
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