I’m pretty sure that most of the crowd that packed into The Jinx Saturday night for one of the final shows of Savannah Stopover had no idea what they were about to walk into the frenetic mess that is Peelander-Z. I had the vague idea that Peelander-Z would be a spectacle, with crowd participation, costumes, and music of some sort from “residents of Planet Peelander”, but at the end of the night I left just as stunned as the unsuspecting.
The band members each dressed in a different color outfit, with “Yellow” acting as a ringleader, recruiting audience members to perform in various stunts. These included the whole bar limboing at once, piggy back guitar playing, costumed jump roping, stage diving, banging on pie tins, and other awesome nonsense. At one point, the band cleared a path through The Jinx from the stage to the door, and then Yellow sprinted from Ellis Square (!!!), through The Jinx and threw himself headlong into bowling pins that had been set up on stage. You know, typical concert stuff.
As for the music, it’s basically a metallic guitar/drums combo with various accompaniments…recorder, more drums. After some internet research it appears they generally tour with a bass player, but they were a 3 piece at The Jinx and still sounded pretty huge. The songs? Well, the subject matter isn’t exactly deep, but songs like So Many Mike, Under Zero and Ninja High School are hilarious. You learned the lyrics to the song Alphabet before you went to kindergarten, but, man, they sell it, and it was a blast.
Here’s a couple photos in color, because, well, you’ll see. Much more craziness after the jump. Look for hissing lawns contributors and Sauna Heat members featured prominently on stage.
