JG Thirlwell @Prospect Park Bandshell, June 18th

We rallied up the troops for this Celebrate Brooklyn show at Prospect Park because our friend Karen (of The Roulette Sisters) was playing in a twenty piece orchestra led by composer JG Thirlwell. They performed his Steroid Maximus project as well as some music from The Venture Brothers (which pleased Bestest Boy a lot, he being a fan of the Cartoon Network show). What does this all mean, you might ask? Well, for orchestra music, this was perhaps the grooviest, funkiest stuff I've ever heard live in such a format, sounding like something straight off of a '70s James Bond soundtrack. I often expected some villains to storm across the stage. It was quite fantastic to see the audience bopping their heads and feet along to the retro beat.

(More words and pics after the jump.)

I don't know much about Thirlwell himself, but it seemed like he felt a little awkward up there on the raised platform, moving his arms ever so slightly and stiffly. He looked a little out of place and perhaps would have been content to let the orchestra members just do their thing. Nonetheless, it was still great seeing the man behind the music, as though he were the Wizard of Oz.

*****

Before JG Thirlwell hit the stage, the wonderfully enigmatic Dr. Lonnie Smith warmed up the crowd. Known as a master of the Hammond B-3 organ he played some more straightforward jazz, but it still pulled me in, reminding me of the time my mom and I went up to Newport, RI, for the Jazz Festival there some years ago. I found myself entranced by the whirring of the Hammond B-3 and would gladly get caught up in Dr. Smith's spell another time.