Today's illustrious band:

If Cats Took Acid

Brought to you by Michael Moschen (aptly pronounced "motion").

Michael Moschen is widely regarded as being one of the best contact jugglers in the world, and one of the most innovative regular jugglers as well. Contact juggling is when the juggler stays in contact with the ball(s) or other prop(s) the whole time rather than throwing things into the air. For instance, he rolls a ball up and down his arms and over the backs and palms of his hands, not unlike the Harlem Globetrotters, but with pants that fit. (Tomorrow's band: Pants That Fit!) It looks like the ball stands still while he dances beneath and around it. Or he swirls several crystal (acrylic, actually) balls in the palms of his hands, tumbling them around and over one another like really big raindrops. Moschen can manipulate 4 softball-sized balls at a time in each hand. With the right lighting, they look like diamonds in whitewater.

A second component of Moschen's show could be described as sound juggling. He's famous for standing inside a big triangular frame, bouncing balls off the three walls in increasingly intricate patterns. Each wall produces a different tone when struck, so there's an element of melody as well as the rhythmic thump of each bounce. Then he adds a few tap-dance steps, sometimes bouncing the balls with his feet. Or he'll place a gong face-down a couple feet above what's essentially a large drum head. He bounces a ball off the drum. As it ricochets upward, it hits the gong, then rebounds precisely into his hand. And I do mean precisely! He kept 5 balls going on this contraption for at least a solid minute last night, throwing faster and faster and faster without ever appearing to move anything but his wrists. Good juggling, like good music, depends on good rhythm. Sometimes they're all the same thing.

One of the most amusing pieces was one in which Moschen himself did not appear at all. From off stage right, he (or someone) rolled a ball across the darkened stage. One of two spotlights picked it up and followed it most of the way across. Then another ball emerged from the wings and the second spotlight picked it up and followed it across. Meanwhile the first spot released its ball, then caught a new one as it emerged. The spotlights performed the function of the juggler's hands. Clever! And a cheap way to kill a couple minutes while the stage was being set for the next scene.

To his nonpercussive pieces, which include dance-juggling with props like hollow pyramids and alate (wing-like) pieces of scrap metal, Moschen adds music. This is the only element of the show I didn't like. His musical accompaniment consists largely of techno compositions that hint at what it would sound like if cats took acid — inside the cats' own heads, at least: lots of deep purring bass and drawn-out synthesizer mrrrowing. I found it distracting rather than complementary.

I'm surprised it bugged me, too; I've been to a couple electronic music performances by Datura (aka Fractal Matt) and found them quite interesting. Maybe that's because I was free to concentrate on the sound rather than being distracted by the sights. This is a pretty small complaint, though. Even from the top of the balcony, my eye was delighted by the light trails Moschen's props blazed across the stage.

Anyway. If you want to experience a bit of the way this guy's mind works, try this audience participation exercise: With your right hand draw a square in the air. Four sides, 1-2-3-4. Do this three times in a row so you've drawn a total of 12 sides. OK. Leave that for a second and with your left hand draw a triangle in the air. Three sides, 1-2-3. Do this four times in a row so you've again drawn a total of 12 sides. Now — you see where this is leading, don't you? — draw the shapes simultaneously, side by side (so to speak), the three squares with your right hand and the four triangles with your left, for a total of 12 sides. When you've mastered this, switch shapes/sides.

GAAAAAAGH!