Here Comes The Flood: Vagabond Opera: The Zeitgeist Beckons

photo: Alicia Rose

The Zeitgeist Beckons is concept album of sorts - an opera buffa for the cabaret age consisting of four acts (or maybe five) by Vagabond Opera a sextet from Portland, who use 13 different languages in their lyrics, cover Edith Piaf, Tom Waits, Dmitri Shostakovich and Jacques Brel, and generally let rip like they did when Weill and Brecht were the kings of the roaring Twenties.

This is an album that can serve as a treasure hunt for music geeks trying to find all the references - the easy ones are Verdi's Traviata and Grieg's Peer Gynt. The bulk of the material however are originals. The album seems to be about a professor trying to create a female golem in the catacombs of Paris, or the Belgian revolutionary Antony Antwerp Canniere who rans into Cyrano de Bergerac, (Anton's brother shows up too, but he is actually a Bulgarian woman), while in New Orleans the mayor is really pissed that a ganef has run of with his daughter, and Bubbsky, the lonely NOLA ghost, drifts down to Amsterdam and sings the famous Brel song about that lovely city. As Anton exclaims, a bit exhausted after all this: "who is this zeitgeist anyway? "And then his sister punches him in the balls. Yes, that's an opera buffa alright.

The Zeitgeist Beckons ends with an Very Extremely Super Important Legal Disclaimer, but the lawyers ramblings are drowned out by the band members talking almongst themselves and making a racket. Who need lawyers when you can have a fun? Don a straw hat, hit a serious bottle of wine and sing along. Odd, addictive, with shredding cellos, bouncy accordion, juicy saxophone, and a nod to Lady Day.

Vagabond Opera:
Eric Stern: operatic tenor, accordion
Robin Jackson: tenor saxophone, vocals
Ewalt "Skip" vonKuske: cello
Jason Flores: standup bass
Mark Burdon: drums
Lesly Kernochan: vocals, alto saxophone