Katzenjammer - Victoria Vox -- Iota - July 10 2010

Victoria Vox - Ms. Vox is a ukulele specialist who plays at many ukulele festivals (this was news to me) among other appearances. She has some nice songs, sung with a nice voice that is balanced just right between cute and strong. The amazing talent she has is accompanying her punchy ukulele playing with her mouth trumpet (demonstrated here). She adds a bit of button accordion and has good stories in between the songs. A cover of "Psychokiller" works and she is the only performer I have seen recently that sells CDs, t-shirts and ukulele themed underwear (but the mens underwear was sold out). Hopefully, it is obvious by now, that she is quite entertaining and the very crowded club really enjoyed the set as much as I did.

Katzenjammer - I was fortunate enough to review their CD for Folkworld magazine and was pretty much blown away by how much fun it was. This band is four Norwegian women who bring a ton of energy and style while playing guitar, drumkit, piano, mandolin, banjo, kazoo, trumpet, accordion, glockenspiel, and the very large custom 3-string cat bass balalaika. David Byrne invited them over to play Bonaroo and with this night have just concluded a short big-city tour of mostly US coastal cities. The energy and charm is as infectious as anyone out there. They deftly handle loads of instrument switching with all four taking a place behind the drum kit at some point. They all take a turn at lead vocals and do plenty of choral singing, even an a cappella move. They have that crazy energy you get from Gogol Bordello, but are much more diverse in the types of music they play from folk to power pop to worldbeat to waltz to... I am not even sure I kept track well enough. I was just having a great time. And to think, I really wanted to go to this show to add my presence to a deserving band that I was not sure too many people have heard of. Well, that is out the window, as the club was very full and the crowd really dug them. Next time they return, I am sure it will be even larger. This band is going places.

Quote of the Night: Victoria Vox... "(This song is) about a sexually frustrated tugboat who wants to get it on with an ocean liner... well, you need new things to write about."