Bosnian Rainbows

Cabaret du Mile End, Montreal, QC, February 22

Photo Courtesy of Rodriguez Lopez Productions

BY Ralph ElawaniPublished Feb 23, 2013

6
Manic pedalboard mogul Omar Rodríguez-López swung through town to unveil his most recent hybrid act, Bosnian Rainbows. Having released more albums in the last three years than the number of times Charlie Sheen swore he was going to come clean, Rodríguez-López is by modern medicine's standards a full-blown case of hyperactivity, which could also explain the reason why he still looks 20 at 37.

Squeezed in the centre of Cabaret's wide stage, the quartet — composed of singer and Regan MacNeil "move-alike" Teri Gender Bender, ex-Mars Volta drummer Deantoni Parks, keyboard player Nicci Kasper and card-carrying Ibanez molester Rodríguez-López — played for more than an hour to a crowd of about 100 heads who went from diehard Gong fans to cupcake-making gender-studies wooly nerds.

Akin to most projects in Rodríguez-López's capacious résumé, Bosnian Rainbows pride themselves in going over and beyond the frame usually implemented by radio-friendly standards. As a result, brain-aneurysm-inducing grooves sometimes collided head on with the normality of slick, rational and skippable hooks — unfortunately reminiscent of some Las Vegas synth-driven mustachioed quartet. It was an assumed hit below the belt to anyone struggling with the idea of watching Rodríguez-López do anything but snap the fuck out, leaving the group's polymorphic drummer munch on bananas between songs to refuel for the rest of the set.

Bosnian Rainbows' far-fetched register was a coin toss at their first-ever Montreal performance. But judging by the prolificacy of Rodríguez-López's ever-expanding catalogue and Gender Bender's ability to remain pertinent in the midst of the most "textured" moments, the group won't need anybody's help to read their own meter and pen copious amounts of stellar dementia in the future.

Latest Coverage