Lodge-podge
>> Nothing’s ordinary about Patrick Watson’s Gealman

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

You may have caught Waterproof9, the last project by local musician Patrick Watson and photographer Brigitte Henry, at Cinema l’Amour last summer. The venerable old theatre (where, legend has it, Harry Houdini was dealt the mid-show injury that later killed him) took a break from its usual triple-X schedule and hosted the hybrid of Watson’s tenebrous soundscaping and Henry’s distinctive underwater photography.

The pair return with a new show now, at SAT this time, and it’s called Gealman’s Just an Ordinary Day. Watson’s nutshell synopsis sounds reasonable enough—“The story is about a man named Gealman who decides to break away from reality and jumps,” he explains. “It’s about everything that happens from the time he jumps to when he hits the water. He finds himself in a lodge that is a gate that takes him to different places each time.”
Of course. Perfectly reasonable, in a David Lynch kinda way. Watson himself will be sticking to his piano-man persona this time, handling vox and keys. “The music is different from the Waterproof9 stuff. It’s not as ambient but it still crosses many similar paths, from film score to a simple song with a whole bunch of twists in the middle, ranging from free jazz to good old doo-wop.”

Take note that no less than three other former members of local ska-jazz thugs Gangster Politics—Simon Angell, Liam Chapman and Tim Doyle—are involved in Gealman in one capacity or another. And there are plenty of capacities available in a multimedia show like this. “The show includes a live band, a DJ, visuals and a secret room where some of the visuals are filmed. The DJ is Christelle Franca, but she acts as more of a narrator and takes care of soundscapes—she isn’t mixing. Brigitte’s visuals are where the lodge leads Gealman. Her visuals are a lot like her photos, and are used to bring you to a place.”
What that place might be seems about as clear as Henry’s dreamlike images, Watson’s murky, moody music or the validity of Gealman as a given name (I don’t know any, do you?). But, given their track record, it’s a safe bet that Gealman’s Just an Ordinary Day won’t be just an ordinary play. :

At SAT on Thursday, June 6, 10pm, $11.50