|
Press Room
M4MO:
A good time
By Nichole
Hetrick
Weekender Reporter
Want to travel around the world in three hours and have a blast doing it?
The the Miles 4 Monty Orchestra may be your best ticket.
M4MO performed Feb. 8 at The House, 263 E. Lincoln Highway, for an enthusiastic,
abundant audience. Before the golden curtains opened, the band kicked off
with a mellow groove that suggested an experience, rather than a performance,
was about to take place.
“It’s Saturday night, we hope you’re feeling all right,” a
soothing poetic voice spoke to the people, explaining that the M4MO was actually
the “people’s peoples” orchestra and that above all else, they
were there to spread the good vibes. This pep talk elicited an anticipatory squirming
of the audience complete with catcalls and a low, urging applause.
The curtain finally opened revealing a quartet situated amid numerous interesting-looking
instruments. As the band members launched their first tune, it made the
soul feel like it was traveling effortlessly through time and space.
Four NIU School of Music alumni set the vibe for what felt like a world-peace
family reunion where getting crazy is urged.
Mark “Poncho” Domanico, an elementary school teacher by day,
was the poetic voice heard at the start of the show. Singing most of the
vocal parts, Poncho’s highlighted contributions to the ensemble are
his virtuoso acoustic guitar playing and his ever-present, contagious smile.
Adam Bockman plays an extremely versatile and mean bass guitar while working
seamlessly with the two percussionists to weave in and out of the world
grooves that M4MO explores. He also solos on many of the tunes.
Auxiliary percussionist Tim Rush has performed and toured with NIU’s
own world-famous Steel Band. M4MO featured him on the second song, which
was Rush’s own arrangement of Paul Simon’s “Late in the
Evening.” Rush had the crowd bouncing in its seats as he both sang
and showed his steel pan abilities on this calypso-style number that transports
the mind to a conga line at a paradise resort.
Native New Yorker Nick “the Deuce” Auriemmo rounded out the orchestra
with his energetic drumming. Auriemmo, who has studied West African drumming
and the xylophone with Ghanaian master Bernard Woma, played the African
xylophone, which is a rustic-looking mallet instrument played while kneeling
on the floor. Between these two percussionists, there was a smorgasbord
of varying percussive instruments throughout the show that never missed
a beat.
Guaranteed, this band is unique in the area.
“Who else would give you Spanish guitar with East Indian drumming in one
song?” Rush said.
The band’s eclectic sound makes it unique.
“We try to combine many different elements to bring forth a collage of sounds,” Domanico
said. “When we play my tunes, we just jam out. Every time we play it is
different. There have been many forms of all these tunes.”
M4MO made its DeKalb debut in 1996 at Otto’s, 118 E. Lincoln Highway,
and has been playing faithfully at The House about once a month since its
opening in August 2000.
“They are by far one of the best acts we have,” said Meeghan Dooley,
a senior music education major and waitress at The House. “They have helped
define what The House is today.”
M4MO is planning the release of its first album this spring. To hear a
sample, visit www.m4mo.com. |
|