All Photos By Mandy Pichler
Papadosio brought its Extras in a Movie tour to the Windy City on October 9th, and they didn’t disappoint. The filled-to-rafters crowd (three stories high) at the House of Blues Chicago grooved to a playlist that naturally included songs from the new album, Papadosio’s fourth full-length studio release.
Unlike most psychedelic jam bands, what sets Papadosio apart – and puts them in a somewhat different league – is its amalgamation of analog and digital music making. While this technique has been incorporated into other genres for a while now, Papadosio seamlessly pulls it off in a genre that has been cemented in the purity of instruments and improvisational jams.
On this night, the genre-bending band melted their instruments, live looping and computer-generated sounds into the psyches of its loyal fan-base. And they made it look and sound easy, undoubtedly no small accomplishment.
But the music was just part of the show. While the light extravaganza was expected, a cinematic backdrop of incredibly eclectic images was deftly interwoven throughout the night, making the evening a full-blown sensory experience. As the sounds played to the ears and hearts of the audience, the visuals offered a cerebral, heady component that took the music to a level higher than anticipated.
In other words: It worked. The auditory and visual stimuli of Papadosio’s Extras in a Movie show in Chicago prove that staging can complement music rather than distract from it or replace it as the central focus all together, and that a band, even today, can create its own genre-within-a-genre.
– Mandy Pichler
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