The Vegetable Orchestra
Or, Terry Schiavo plays the tuber. The Vegetable Orchestra (Das gemüseorchester) were pretty much what you'd expect from their name - music played with carrots and cucumbers turned into instruments. They're not completely out of their gourd, but they certainly brought the fun to Jubilee Hall. The visual spectacle of the live event was just as much part of the effect - in the background were projections of veggies being sliced up, while the sound of tumbling pumpkins and aubergines was much enhanced by seeing them tumble.
All in all, an enjoyable evening, although from a pure musical perspective the tunes that focused on percussion (such as "Greenhouse", a house music piece) fared much better than the efforts at melody - the carrot flute was an intriguing effort, but sometimes one thought of that old Samuel Johnson quote about a dog walking on its hind legs ("It's not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all"). But that's being churlish - the cover of Kraftwerk's "Radioaktivität" was a new way of looking at the song, and that's pretty much what you ask from covers. And hey, they served soup.
Songs with fruit and veg references:
All in all, an enjoyable evening, although from a pure musical perspective the tunes that focused on percussion (such as "Greenhouse", a house music piece) fared much better than the efforts at melody - the carrot flute was an intriguing effort, but sometimes one thought of that old Samuel Johnson quote about a dog walking on its hind legs ("It's not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all"). But that's being churlish - the cover of Kraftwerk's "Radioaktivität" was a new way of looking at the song, and that's pretty much what you ask from covers. And hey, they served soup.
Songs with fruit and veg references:
- U2, "Lemon" (there was also a Melon EP, with some "Lemon" remixes)
- Harry Nilsson, "Coconut"
- Stevie Wonder, "You are the Sunshine of My Life" (with that "you are the apple of my eye" line)
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