Beast Blog

Billy Nayer Show & Ralph Carney & friends!

The Billy Nayer Show, Ralph Carney & friends!
Saturday, October 25th, 9:30 PM, $10, 21+

Oakland Metro- 201 Broadway (@ 2nd street, Jack London Square, Oakland)

The Billy Nayer Show: dani sez: Personally, I cannot say enough glowing things about this unique, strange, and always entertaining hybrid of music, art, film, performance art, spoken word, storytelling, and cult of personality. If you have never seen The Billy Nayer Show, you MUST go to this show. Here are some press highlights for you to mull over:


"A singer and filmmaker, Nayer's acquired an insistent cult reputation in San Francisco. This multimedia cabaret (live music plus films) was the best kept secret of the Sundance Film Festival last winter." -The Village Voice

"Hard to describe- but much loved among its giddy cult of followers." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Strange and popular... frightening yet endearing." -The New Yorker

"I don't know what the fuck to call it. Just go see them." -Chart Magazine, Canada

"It's no simple task to sum up the Billy Nayer Show. This virtuostic foursome, headed by the dapper, verging on psychotic Cory McAbee, presents not mere songs but dark and fascinating narratives." -SF Bay Guardian / Critic's Choice

"A live set by [The Billy Nayer Show] is a much more theatrical and disturbing event than it sounds on paper. Lead singer and songwriter Cory McAbee commands the stage, bellowing pronouncements about bunny kings and romantic travails with a voice somewhere between suave assurance and cracked desperation." -New York Magazine

Ralph Carney: dani sez: What an amazing & quirky musician! I first discovered Ralph while he was playing with The Oranj Mancinis/Symphonette (a band covering Mancini is their own unique way). Everything I have seen him do since is equally as brilliant. Together, this is a great bill!

"Ralph's great... He's guided by some other source of information. He's like a broken toy that works better than before it was broken." -Tom Waits

"In some circles, notably those occupied by fans of Tom Waits, Carney's brand of wacky is a prized assortment of sounds gleaned from saxophones, clarinets, and the odd banjo, trumpet, panpipe, or exotic horn. It perfectly complemented the comically dark, lurching vision that Waits realized on his albums from Frank's Wild Years through The Black Rider; it dominates the sound track Waits fashioned for Night On Earth in 1992." -Derk Richardson, SF Bay Guardian

"He remains a naturally imaginative improviser, with a real lyrical sense, and one whose humor permeates his work... I especially dig him on alto..." -Harvey Pekar

This show is the only Bay Area Billy Nayer Show appearance for months! Catch them in this rare, more intimate setting!

Posted by daniland at October 8, 2003 09:09 AM | TrackBack