Danny Alder – Get Behind Me Elephant
n the opening to his show, Danny Alder declared that it was the only festival show to pose the question “Can Danny Alder become a rock star?” and indeed it was. Taking the audience through various aspects of the rock industry, Danny lets the audience decide whether or not he has what it takes to fulfill his dream of rock super stardom.
The show is structured into short segments in which Danny presents material about each rock aspect with some video footage to illustrate his points. The first of these was “Rock Fashion”, covering various trends in rock apparel including Danny’s own stylish Jack White inspired ensemble. This was followed by “Rock Technique” where we were given a sampling of Danny’s musical ability via Air Instrument performance.
The next was “Rock Religion” where Danny exposed the myth of rock being the music of the Devil. You’ll be surprised at the evidence he presents! “Rock Confidence” was the next segment in which he briefly left the world of rock to poke fun at the arrogant people in wider society. The final segment was “Rock Lifestyle” where Danny described his current less than rock lifestyle with an amusing anecdote about marriage proposal.
At the end of each segment, Danny employed a novel method in gauging the audience approval. To the tune of “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”, he encouraged the crowd to join in on the Axel Rose improvisational “Hey, Hey, Hey…” part in the chorus. The volume at which it was sung determined the level of Danny’s success. It may have been greatly inaccurate but was fun. Through some form of extrapolation, Danny was declared as successful in his quest on this night and as promised at the beginning of the show, he revealed the truth behind ten famous rock myths.
Playing a mean guitar, Danny was joined on stage by his band consisting of Kyle on drums and Gillian on keyboard. Their original tunes were performed throughout the show, containing witty lyrics and played with tight musicianship. The opening song described his titular plight and the closing number was a perfect triumphant rock anthem. They even ventured into some gospel/jazz during the religion section, showing off their talents in any genre.
The material presented by Danny was hilarious, with many rock references inserted throughout. I found that I seemed to be the only one who picked up on a couple of them, so anyone with a vast knowledge of rock has many subtle lines to keep them laughing. Despite a technical hitch with the audio of the recorded footage (it was only opening night after all), these clips illustrated the segments well. Danny did his best to paraphrase any spoken pieces that couldn’t be heard and for all we knew, his description could have been better than the original dialogue.
It was a fun show with some non-threatening audience interaction, plenty of music and many laughs. If you want to help Danny in his quest, get thee to Bar Open by following the directions at Danny Alder – Get Behind Me Elephant .