Search - Gropius :: Indelicate

Walter would be pleased

Zach Garland | Dallas, TX USA | 12/31/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine three women and two men on stage. The women are dressed to kill in provacative but tasteful black leather. The men are there in comfort and look more like respectable grunge. The audience is come-as-you-are, and Gropius' appeal attracts a wide eclectic mix. One gentleman mans percussion quite admirably and the other operates a bass, making it look easy. Two of the ladies are wielding string instruments (violin and viola) with the precision of a military surgical strike. The lass with the microphone in the center has a voice that can topple the tower of Babel, wake the dead, summon Oberon and Titania, or awaken your third eye at her merest whim. Her tongue was stolen from Siouxsie and the Banshees, and her eyes have been known to melt beer mugs. There is a noticable abscence of electric guitars -- this concerns you for the first ten seconds of their performance, and then when you reawaken from your reverie an hour or so later, you have completely forgotten what a guitar is. Welcome to Gropius. This is not your average run-of-the-mill garage goth band which does more voyeuristic posing than playing. These five tinkers use their instruments in the same way architect Walter Gropius once used his own tools. They orchestrate intangibly tangible structures into the air utilizing sound waves and raw emotional energy. This is not for the timid, and is admittedly an aquired taste, but if you have what it takes to withstand the onslaught of this band's talent and ferocity, you will be rewarded by those neato shivers running up and down your back. Industrial? Punk? Alternative? Classical? Classic Rock? Folk? Atonal Jazz Infusion? Gropius tells the genres and stereotypes to kiss them where the sun don't shine, and they have the chutzpah to go out on that limb. This ain't your Daddy's regurgitated top forty synthopop. Enter at your own risk."