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Arts and Entertainment

Steampunk band gets in the Snowdown spirit

Abney Park brings years of experience with them
Steampunk band Abney Park will bring its unique sound and dancable show to Durango. The band’s lead singer, Captain Robert Brown, says the band is excited to be part of Snowdown.

A plane carrying the members Abney Park collided with an airship called Ophelia during a freak storm, and the surviving members went on to steer the vessel and became airship pirates.

This is the fictional story of how Abney Park transformed from a gothic band into a steampunk band in 2005, and Captain Robert Brown has been at the helm since the beginning.

When the band began in 1997, it had the steampunk aesthetic, but there was no “steampunk” at the time. Now, it’s a subculture, and Abney Park has been along for the ride during its rise in popularity.

If anyone knows steampunk, it’s the captain/lead singer.

“The aesthetic (of steampunk) is viewing the future from Victorian times. So back before we had airplanes, or before we had many airplanes, how did we view the future was going to become? Back when the airship was this brand-new technology, what did we think the world would be like in 200 years? Looking forward from this old-fashioned mind sort of makes the essence of what steampunk is,” Brown said.

The band uses several instruments to create a fun, unique and danceable show, including the Turkish diatonic accordion, darbuka, baglama, bouzouki, which Brown plays, as well as the violin, keyboard, drums, electric guitar and bass guitar. There is also a belly dancer.

“Everybody is phenomenal at what they do. I wouldn’t say I’m on the same level as they are, but what I do sounds good, and it’s unusual so it works, too,” Brown said.

The Seattle-area-based band has fans around the world, including in Russia, where they toured last year and drew some of their largest crowds.

“It was right in the middle of the riots caused by Pussy Riot,” Brown said. Members of the all-female Russian punk-rock group were jailed for making political statements at its concert at a Moscow church in 2012, and they were released last year after two-year sentences.

“All of our friends and colleagues in America were urging us not to go, fearing for our safety. When we got there, we found ourselves so amazingly embraced and well-received,” Brown said.

Their first show in Saint Petersburg was sold out and went well, and the next night, in Moscow, things got interesting.

Before they took the stage, a Russian television interviewed the band and asked routine questions. At the end, “They said, ‘you don’t have to answer this, but we wanna know your political affiliations before you go on stage,’” Brown said. “It was almost like they were interviewing us to see if we were going to cause some big riot.”

They were ready for the question.

“I said, ‘I’ll let the politicians handle politics. I’m just here to rock the house,’ and that’s what we did,” Brown said.

“Everybody in Russia is very intense and focused. And the guy interviewing us was very intense and focused, so he could have been a TV personality or he could have been the secret service, you know? We had no idea. I think if I gave a slightly more political answer, we might have been allowed to perform,” Brown said.

But they do have a message, and maybe it’s political.

“Modern society is not necessarily superior to the things of the past. (The themes in our music) are about embracing some the old ways in the world that used to work. A lot of stuff about DIY culture. Living your own life independent of this sort of pop culture that’s being pounded into all of us by big corporations,” Brown said.

Abney Park has an 18-album discography to pull from for their show Thursday at Animas City Theatre. It’s their first time here, and the captain says the band is excited to be part of Snowdown.

They’ve played shows in Colorado, but this will be their first time in Durango.

“I’ve heard really great things about Durango and how much they embrace that (steampunk) culture. We’re very excited to see this manifested. We’ve had fans, people in your town, call us up and say, ‘you gotta visit this, you’ve gotta visit that.’ We’re very excited to see it,” Brown said.

mhayden@durangoherald.com

If you go

Abney Park with Carute Roma & Troupe Verde Belly Dancers, 9:30 p.m., $35, Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive, 799-2281. Get tickets at Southwest Sound or online at https://holdmyticket.com/checkout/event/184201. For more information, visit www.animascitytheatre.com.



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