Captain Freedom and the Capital Fringe Festival

(images from the awesome people at capfringe.org)

The Capital Fringe Festival is a pretty cool idea. The event, which has run since 2006, focuses on serving up a selection of contemporary performing arts and music acts with a heavy focus on artistic freedom, low ticket prices, and original material. Fort Fringe, the epicenter of this annual performing arts festival, squats quietly on a side street merely two blocks away from the Mt Vernon Square/ 7th Street Convention Center Metro station, within spitting distance of K Street and all the associated money that involves.

Some forewarning for those inclined to make an evening out of a Capital Fringe show: Most of the dining options in the area are not cheap. Most restaurants nearby cater to the three-martini lunch crowd inhabiting the nearby offices. However, the folks running the festival have done attendees the favor of hosting a pleasant little tent bar in a parking lot near Fort Fringe with cheap and serviceable food and drinks – a good choice for those less inclined to spend $50 a head on dinner before a show. Comers may avail themselves of three-dollar cans of Stella Artois at their own risk.

The venue for the show I attended, the Redrum, is pretty much a typical shared art space. It is arty and spacious. Features include a slightly raised platform for your stagey needs, chairs for your sitting convenience, and not much else. Festival performances tend to be minimalist in design. The play itself was put on by a skeleton crew of six players (audio and lighting guru included), and contained all the heart and love you would imagine from true believers in the idea of live theatre.

Captain Freedom is a biographical journey through the life and times of its titular protagonist – a professional superhero more concerned with the celebrity and wealth that a heroing career can bring than petty morality. Those familiar with the movie The Specials will quickly understand the play's approach towards superheroes as beings that are not just super-powerful, but super-flawed. Our fearless Captain highlights the hitches, bumps, finagling, and dirty deals that made him the hero he was.

The show manages to be highly topical with plenty quips on politics, references to current events, and the usual old saws about inside-the-beltway life that seem to be sure-fire crowd-pleasers. Yes, some of the jokes are old hat, but overall, the performance was thoughtful and entertaining, and boasted a plethora of special touches that made the night a memorable experience for magnanimous humor lovers as well as nasty-minded cynics like myself.

The Capital Fringe Festival will continue to host performances until this coming Sunday. Captain Freedom's last festival performance will be on Friday, July 22 at 10:45PM. Kindly visit the festival website for information on shows and tickets.

Review: Axis of Awesome Show

The Awesomvirate from Axis of Awesome

Straight out of Sydney, the Axis of Awesome bursts into stage for American audiences.  This is more proof of geek culture joining the mainstream.  Not in a bad way mind you.  Not like M. Night Shamealot's The Last Airbender.  This band is pretty much covered in medals and accolades from Austrialia, it's pretty cool they were able to make it up for an American tour.  The crowd at the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse was very excited and the house was packed (and buzzed, it is a drafthouse after all).

Look, like most people there I had heard their 4 chords song.  While I love that song I wasn't sure that was going to be enough to sustain my entertainment throughout the entirety of the concert.  Man was I wrong.  I need to wear a t-shirt that says "this dude is wrong".  I expect that shirt waiting for me back at Castle DCGeekia.  There weren't really any portions of the concert itself that were weaker than others.  The bits they performed between songs played perfectly off each other.  Lots of fun self deprecating humor.  Comedy about how they are Austrialian.  Some good old fashioned anti-Canadian humor.  I mean it had just about everything.  What's up with all this Canadia hate anyhow?  Do you think it's a hang over from the French and Indian War?  Yeah, probably.

Watching their performance showed obviously not just how long the three of them have been working together, but how well they queue off each others performances.  The show felt like a pretty normal music / music comedy show (funny music anyone?) with these awesome pauses in between the music where the band would begin these pseudo casual conversations, half between themselves and half with the crowd.  It somehow felt incredibly casual, like you were sitting with them in a coffee shop or living room, yet polished like the fine comedic routine that it was.  Yes, the lead singer looks a lot like Jack Black, I kept thinking this to myself throughout the entire performance.  I was pretty shocked when as I was about to convince myself that it was just me that saw this, he goes into a bit about how he's tired of people telling him how much he resembles Mr. Black (hmm ok in this case not a Reservoir Dog, dear god, I keep forgetting Tim Roth was one).  Then goes into a song about it.  I should hate them for reading my mind like that.

In addition to everything else the entire performance was rife with nerd references.  I mean packed end to end.  I'm not even going to begin trying to list references because I would just be handing you the script for their entire show.  Looking around the crowd people were rocking woot and threadless shirts, plus the scruffy Dick Van Dyke, both key signs that you are in a nerd heavy zone.  It was especially heavy on the internet culture references.  I'm only half surprised they didn't get into making All Your Base jokes.

There were a couple of huge selling points for me on this show.  The large volume and smoothness of delivery of nerd references.  The awesome interpersonal interaction between the band members.  The self deprecating humor (ie Jack Black reference and a few others).  I really enjoyed this concert, honestly, a lot more than I thought I would going into this.  I didn't know a whole lot about them before hand and now it's obvious I was doing myself a disservice by now keeping them on my radar.  Well worth attending and their music is well worth listening to.