Zebulon: Rain Phoenix, Kokomo and The Motion Motion

I was wanting to catch one of Rain Phoenix's residency nights. I headed off on the last night. The set was filled with wonderful folk sounds. She mentioned that a number of the songs were co-written with her brother River Pheonix. For the final song, she brought up her sister Liberty Phoenix for a duet. As she talked with the audience between songs, she discussed death. She mentioned that this is something we all have in common no matter our politics, religion or nationality. She also apologized for grinning while talking about death, but then it was due to her approach in how she was discussing the topic.

Rain Phoenix

Opening the night was Kokomo which featured Lauren Rocket and Holly Marilyn Solem. Both used to be in a band called The Child. The was a favorite of mine. The Child sped through music like no tomorrow with a electronic, goth feel to it. Kokomo turns that all upside down with chill sounds. This was their first set and so was short and sweet. It included a cover of The Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen.

Kokomo

In between Kokomo and Rain Phoenix was The Motion Motion, an interpretive dance group. I ended up being part of their show so I figured I'd write-up my experience. (No link to a site of their's as I couldn't find one.)

The Motion Motion

To be honest, I’m not sure when their interpretive dance set started. The dancers moved some chairs to the center of the venue. Then they tried to get people to sit on those chairs. Everyone declined. One of dancers came up to me and I felt like declining, as well, but I also felt like someone should volunteer so I took a seat. A few moments later the same dancer came over and said, “You don’t need to sit here anymore. Sorry, I misunderstood what was happening.” I shrugged and left the chair. Less than a minute later, another dancer came over and rather forcefully took me by the arm and pulled me over to another chair. Was this all part of their act?

Well, they started to do their interpretive dance moves and a significant part of it took place on the Zebulon raised seats (as seen in photo). They threw themselves across those seats, which actually freaked me out. I was just waiting for them to throw themselves so aggressively that they’d bounce off the wall and end up tumbling to the floor. They also danced around those that were convinced to take a seat on the chairs.

Throughout the set, they kept yelling out, “Is this on? Is this on?” Who knows what they were talking about, but everyone yelled out, “YES! YES!” As their set came to a close, the first dancer who had asked me to take a seat came over and whispered, “Is this on?” I replied, “I’m uncertain.” That was the honest answer, because I didn’t get what they meant by their question. An audience member looked at me with an amused look. Sorry, I obviously fail at the liberal arts.