Review: Mrs. Meow's Talenza Bonanza

By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 13, 2006 7:44PM

Maybe it's your first time visiting Chicagoist. Maybe you've been asleep. Maybe you've been on a month long bender. But perhaps you haven't heard about this little thing we're doing called Ctrl-Alt-Rock. Really. Look to the left of your screen here. There's some information. It's happening this Thursday. At Schubas. We're excited.

Well, one of the bands that is going to bring the music, May or May Not, has a variety of talents. Including whipping up a variety/talent show. We told you about it a little over a week ago, and we were intrigued by our own post.

So, we emailed Amelia per the instructions, and decided to put our hat in the proverbial ring. We decided to do a reading on bees, and went about our preparations. The night came and we headed down to Phyllis' Musical Inn down in the hipster headquarters of Wicker Park. Amelia and Steve, the hosts for the night, were welcoming and friendly. Things didn't get rolling precisely at the 9 pm start, so we watched part of the muted Olympic opening ceremonies.

DJ Dirty Cowboy spun before the show, and in between acts if necessary. We dug his style and wish we had stayed for the impromptu dance party that happened at the end of the night. Sometimes we felt a little out of place, as it seemed this event grew organically out of a bunch of friends who decided to do something and actually did it.

The show started, and the variety of acts was wide. The night started off with a magician. There was a woman in a clown suit who did a strange humming/clicking song. There was a spelling bee between two people that ended in a push-up/sit-up contest. There was a performance art piece where a man read a bunch of disclaimers. There was a singing duo. There was a belly dancer. There was a marionette show. We read our piece about bees. And the last act we saw before we left was a rock opera entitled, "Art Thou Rabbit or Art Thou Snake?"

We hope this particular act will be performed again at some other date and time, as it was completely captivating and really well done. It consisted of a story of two rabbits who have a child, who ends up to be a snake. There is love, conflict, tragedy and redemption, all set to delightfully crafted rock/pop songs.

When all was said and done, we're glad we went, and were happy to see art for art's sake.

Images via smussyolay