Get to Know Avalon Rising – Several Cool Facts and Figures about the Bay Area’s most popular Progressive Celtic/Medieval Rock Band

 

1. What is cool? How does rock and roll make you cool?

 

I’m glad you asked those questions. Rock and roll is the Philosopher’s Stone – it turns something seemingly ugly and ordinary into something wonderful, sparkly and desirable. Rock and roll is the ugly duckling that grows up into a beautiful swan.

 

Here’s how it works. During childhood, there are the kids that are good looking, popular, and successful. Then there are the rejects, the losers, the awkward ones. But let one of those loser kids pick up an electric guitar or a drumstick, and SHAZAM! – instant coolness is the magical result. Suddenly the previously successful kids are outsiders looking in, and in their futile attempts to attain cooldom by adopting the awkward outward trappings of the dorky kids, they generate a multimillion dollar fashion industry emulating the no-style style of the now-cool loser kids.

 

2. Won’t you guys ever go away?

I’m going to ignore that. Are you going to eat that?

 

3.  What kind of music do you guys play?

Within the same set you may hear a 14^th century Spanish cantiga, a medley of Irish dance tunes in a funk rock setting, covers of songs from Jethro Tull, The Who, Canned Heat and the Grateful Dead, or a reggae song paired with a Breton dance tune. We also play original psychedelic and fantasy rock.

 

4. No – I mean, does your style have a name?

 Avalon Rising are purveyors of an unpopular style that just refuses to go away: obscure eclecticism. Previous purveyors include: Taj Mahal, the aforementioned Dead, Ry Cooder, and the entire staff of the KSAN from 1967 to 1973. We’re “Masters of the Musical Left Turn”. This is us; here we are – take us or leave us.

 

5. How long have you been around?

We’re now in the 18^th year of our Greater Bay Area Tour,

 

6. Celtic rock – isn’t that like Riverdance?

Yes, it’s EXACTLY like Riverdance. The only difference is, Riverdance has a cast of 100, whereas Avalon Rising has a cast of 5. Also, Riverdance has a lot of dancing in it; whereas, for your protection, Avalon Rising does not dance. We tried Celtic hard shoe lap dancing for awhile, but it didn’t work out…tips weren’t great, either. But other than that, yeah, we’re exactly like Riverdance, with about 40 differences.

 

7. What are those funny guitars Mark and Kristoph play?

Oh, you mean the ones that look like big spoons, or wooden banjos? They’re not guitars; Mark’s is a 1907 Gibson mandocello…that makes it the cello of the mandolin family.

 

I thought that was the big building on the back of the nickel.

No, that’s Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. Please try to read more carefully. Kristoph’s instrument is an octave mandolin,  which is just like a mandolin only twice as big and tuned one octave lower. Both of these instruments are also called citterns or mandolas, interchangeably. We call ours “Grampa” and “Starfire”.

 

8. Do you guys play dance music?

We’ve had people variously mosh, jitterbug, waltz, jig, Morris-dance, reel, line dance, square dance, and do other unidentifiable things with their bodies while we’ve been playing.

 

9. Do you play any hits/cover songs?

We play a tasteful selection of hits from the 1300’s to the 1970’s.

 

10. Progressive rock – isn’t that pretentious? I thought Asia pretty much drove the last nail in the coffin of that  genre.

Yes, it is pretentious; it pretends that people like all 3 elements of music in their music – melody, rhythm, and harmony. It pretends that we 21^st century musicians have the freedom – nay, it is our job description – to combine as many types of music into one horrifyingly Frankensteinian conglomeration as possible. And actually, many progressive rock bands, from Jethro Tull to Dream Theater, still exist and are making great music. Get over it. (But you’re right, Asia was just embarrassing!)

 

The Avalon Rising Index

 

Number of Strings: 88

Number of Drums: 9

Number of Wind Instruments: 6

Number of Voices: 5

Percentage of Cat’s Clothes That Are Black: 100

Stage Area Required (in hectares): 0.00124236542554360654860372461154578

Stage Area Required (in acres): 0.0029843893480257116620752984389348

Average Number of Instruments Played by Each Band Member: 7.6