Maybe you're one of those people who missed out on Children of the Revolution's exhilarating performance at Benaroya Hall last July because you couldn't finagle a ticket to get into the world-music group's sold-out shows.
Or perhaps you weren't sure you wanted to shell out the bucks for a concert by a band with an unfamiliar name, even though it is based in Queen Anne and plays some of the best world music around.
Not to worry. You've got another chance to experience the dynamic Children of the Revolution in performance, thanks to KCTS-TV/Channel 9. The public broadcasting station will air an abbreviated version of the group's video/DVD of its July 16, 2001, concert at the University of Washington's Meany Hall.
The edited "Children of the Revolution: The World on One Stage" will be shown as part of a 90-minute program on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 6:30 p.m. during one of Channel 9's pledge drives. Lead vocalist Vassili, who co-founded Children of the Revolution with Eric Jaeger in 1998, also will be on hand to chat with Channel 9's George Ray about the group and its music during the pledge breaks. As an added bonus, pledges at certain dollar amounts will net you a copy of the full, two-hour concert video or DVD.
Discard any notions you may have that Children of the Revolution's songs are laidback folk music or can't be distinguished from the tunes of any other world-music group. With members from around the globe, Children of the Revolution tear down the walls between countries and eras with assurance, entwining the music and languages of diverse cultures and decades into gloriously unexpected pairings.
In "Bog Mi Daje," Bosnian and Greek lyrics have a friendly conversation. Pop influences crop up in songs such as "Keep Holding On," sung in Spanish and English by Vassili and Encarnación. Latin rhythms serve as an infectious underpinning for Vassili's Greek lyrics in "Rumba Athena," to which Spanish-born Encarnación dances the flamenco.
The concert video/DVD is at its best when tracking the perpetual motion that imbues Children of the Revo-lution's performances, from Encarna-ción's flamenco to Amelia Moore's Greco-Egyptian belly dancing. Encar-nación's measured steps are echoed in "Danza Flamenco" by the camera's slow revolve as she begins to move to Jaeger's fiery guitar and Keiko Ooka's haunting vocals. As the dance picks up speed, so does the editing, cutting fluently from Encarnación's flashing feet to a full-body shot to her face.
In "As Distant As You Are," Chelsea Bacon aptly performs graceful acrobatics on a trapeze overhead - "It's hard to keep on walking when you can't find solid ground" - as the camera gently highlights the distance between Bacon and Vassili, singing the bittersweet ballad. At one point in "Belly Dance," the music, Moore's dreamy dancing, the lighting and the camerawork conspire, and you can almost feel the heat of sun-baked languor.
Perhaps my favorite piece on the video/DVD - although designating just one is like eating a single French fry - is the evocative "Martha," exemplifying the lyrics and emotion that invigorate much of the group's work.
As the song of lost love opens, Beth Quist, on hammered dulcimer and poi-gnant vocals, is enveloped in a searing light while the rest of the stage is pitch black. This bright moonlight effect - "The moon that shines on Athens is so much brighter than your eyes, and its face is scarred with every tear for every time I lied, so give me something, something for the pain" - is eerie from certain camera angles, throwing Quist into partial shadow, suggesting a pained solitariness. The song's refrain, "I've wasted all this time for you," sung over and over by several band members in the fashion of a round, is a perfect metaphor for wasted time.
Watching Children of the Revolution filmed in concert is a reminder that, once you see them, you can never again hear their CDs without envisioning the kinetic performances they build into their songs.
An edited version of the concert video or DVD "Children of the Revolution: The World on One Stage" will be shown on Channel 9 on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 6:30 p.m. The full two-hour concert will be offered on video as a premium for pledges of $60 and on DVD for $70. At the $80 level, a packet of two CDS, "Keep Holding On" and "Chapter One," will be offered.
Children of the Revolution's five CDs can be purchased in lower Queen Anne at Elefthería, the world music store founded by Vassili with his father, Nickolas Vassili, and Eric Jaeger. Elefthería is located at 512 First Ave. N., 352-6308. For more information on Children of the Revolution, go online to www.wmrevolution.com.
Freelance writer Maggie Larrick is a Seattle-area resident. She can be reached via qanews@nwlink.com
