Pour the sweet 'Syrup Monkey Music'
By KAREN SHADE, 12/09/2009
John Cruncleton (from left), John Finnerty, Steve Beard and Dale Sams are the Calamities pouring out that sweet "Syrup Monkey Music." STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
Nightingale's 'house band' will step to center stage
Do the Calamities exist outside of theater? John Cruncleton hesitates before he answers.
"Up to this point we've kind of considered ourselves a house band around here (the Nightingale Theater) — you know, work up whatever came our way, you know, burlesque numbers or whatever," he said.
But the five-member band that plays those teaser tunes or anything else befitting the night's entertainment is ready to step center stage with "Syrup Monkey Music," opening at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11, at the Nightingale.
The Calamities are Cruncleton on bass guitar, John Finnerty on guitar and keyboards, Joseph Gomez on piano and keyboards, Dale Sams on trombone and Steve Beard on percussion. Most people will associate at least three of those names with Tulsa theater, and they're right on the mark.
Cruncleton, Gomez and Sams have spent enough time on the Nightingale stage to become associated with Tulsa theater, but with band mates Beard and Finnerty, they're stepping outside of the box — something the theater does well already.
"Syrup Monkey Music" proves that further as a departure from even the cabaret-style shows such as the annual 50Swats' "Old Fashioned Poison Candy." "Music" is about, well, the music.
"I'm not an excellent musician, and that's really not my focus with the ensemble," Cruncleton said. "I'm a lot more interested in writing songs."
Like a 50Swats show, "Music" uses monologues and scenes. Unlike a 50Swats presentation (so named for the group of Nightingale actors who write it — the 50Swats Collective), "Music" saves the theatrics to accompany the sound rather than the reverse.
In essence, "the entertainment factor is more prominent in our scheme on this show than maybe the 50Swats' show," Cruncleton said.
"People who are interested in good songwriting and some good rocking tunes are interested in the kind of thing we're putting out," says John Cruncleton of Syrup Monkey Music. STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
Between the band members' various tastes, they're sure to arrive at something original. Cruncleton likes to write songs of a "dominant goddess b---- woman tearing my heart out, but that's just because I've got a romantic bent." Finnerty covers the "soul-funk knock-offs about being sexy and stuff." Gomez "tends to write songs that are weirdly comical where he envisions himself as sort of a Christ-like figure of buffoonery."
Sams loves Sinatra and the standards. Finnerty's into '80s music, and Cruncleton isn't clarifying if he's into Lenin or Lennon.
The Calamities may be keeping the theatric element low-key compared to a Flaming Lips concert, but the band is still searching out the raw theater element it hopes will help define it.
"Tulsa's full of worthy, wonderful musical acts, and there are outstanding musicians in this town," Cruncleton said. "We're definitely competent musicians. Some of us in the ensemble, I daresay, are even good musicians. But we are not setting ourselves up to be a virtuoso act.
"People who are interested in good songwriting and some good rocking tunes are interested in the kind of thing we're putting out."
Just don't ask where they got the name for the show.
SYRUP MONKEY MUSIC
When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Dec. 18-19
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Tickets: $7 at the door; 633-8666