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Commnetary
on Steverino Hayes,
by the Dame Music Hall Publicity Management, on June 27, 2006, Lexington, KY
A Cosmic Evening with STEVERINO
Tuesday, June
27, 2006
If you've been to open mic night at the Dame (in 2006) in Lexington, KY, you know Steverino.
He's unlike any other performer,
and due to his musical foresight, remains a very polarizing character, rousing acute feelings of either glowing adoration
or utter annoyance in the audience. However you feel about him, though, Steverino is one of the most sincere and unequivocally
unique performers.
On the surface, Steverino is a stalwart gentleman, stocky, middle-aged and
of Roman
proportion, who performs in the most striking of zoot suits, top
hat with a radiant red feather, and a background of
pre-produced, low-key,
MIDI keyboard melodies and bouncy, driving beats. He begins some songs with
the phrase
"I write all these songs myself, and I wrote the music
myself," not too far removed from Wesley Willis'
"Rock Over London, Rock on
Chicago." He does jigs, strikes an emotive stage presence, traverses about
the tables, and presents an otherworldly karoke-style performance with
music transposed from guitar to synthesizer.
Think of it as not-so-kitschy
Twin Peaks-core without a dash of pretension. It's truly Biblical.
Steverino's
performance is certainly absurd, but also cosmic and original.
Irwin Chusid, author of "Songs in the
Key of Z" called this "outsider
music," a scope of musicians who played honest songs way too far outside
conventional performance for the masses. However, such esoteric music
garners a cult audience interested in something
entirely against the
grain, even visionary, while building a sympathy to the artist's endearing
demeanor.
For fans of: Wesley Willis, Jandek, Daniel Johnston
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