White Ghost Shivers : Best Band in the World?
Click here to read the original website review by Emmy
The White Ghost Shivers perform[ed] at SXSW 2009. The White Ghost Shivers jumped immediately onto our list of Best Bands Ever. That show was, hands-down, the best live concert I’ve ever seen. Period.
The Shivers are a seven-piece band, with an accordion, upright bass, banjo, trumpet, clarinet, violin, guitar. The music is an insane collision of ragtime, jazz, swing, bluegrass, cabaret, vaudeville, burlesque, Hostess Twinkie, caffeine and Tilt-a-Whirl. It’s about twenty different kinds of infectious; I was actually jumping around and dancing uncontrollably, which was fairly amazing considering that a) I don’t like to dance to stuff I don’t know, and b) I generally stand pretty still at concerts, the better to pay attention.
Just as enjoyable as the music is the stage show. It’s rare to see a band with such stage presence. The Shivers have been playing together for a long time, and it shows; they enjoy themselves on stage, and go to great lengths to make sure the audience has fun as well. Vocalist Cella Blue carries a bag of tricks, including candy, kazoos and whistles to throw to the audience. Banjo player Shorty Borgasm makes the most of his stick-on handlebar mustache and plays a mean nose flute.
Violinist Curtains and lead guitarist Smokebreak Slemenda take turns at the microphone as well, and when someone’s not singing or playing, they’re apt to be swing dancing or showing off their Charleston skills. It’s an infectious mix, and there are always people on their feet and dancing at Shivers shows. This is not music designed to be enjoyed passively. When the bar closed down at 2am after the SXSW show, the Shivers took their show out the exit door and into the street, performing their encore right there on the curb.
We liked it so much that we made sure to catch the Shivers twice more before we left town, and discovered yet another awesome thing: the stage show isn’t only magnificent, it’s not always the same. Depending on the venue, the Shivers can be raunchy or clean, lewd or child-friendly. When we caught their free show at Central Market, they self-censored the raunchier songs (oh, yes, you can combine innocuous-sounding ragtime music with graphic sexual imagery and the F-word, to great effect) and concentrated on getting the kids present to dance. A month later, down at the classic dance hall in Gruene, the Shivers arrived in overalls and checked shirts and put on an enthusiastic hoedown, complete with a “jug-off.” Check out their YouTube videos and you’ll be hard-pressed to find them sporting the same look twice.
Lexie and I are thoroughly hooked, of course. We’ve got T-shirts, stickers, CDs, the whole gamut. The Shivers say they’ll be touring this summer: if they come within a hundred miles of you, be sure to catch them. Do it.
Elepant.com
Click here to read the full review by Emmy
