February 8, 2009 at the Laserium
By Maya Dawn Henderson
Photos by Joe Petro
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BREAK OUT ARTIST, SCOTT STRATTON has really come into his own with his new progressive, space-rock, solo project, Sigmund Fried. I had a chance to see him and his talented crew at the most unusual venue ever ~ the Laserium, in the valley. I didn’t know it yet, but I was in for a stellar experience. Upon walking in the darkly lit building with planetarium-style ambiance, I quickly found myself mingling with friends and guests in an art gallery setting, sipping wine, while checking out the event program and listening to “Radio Mars”, another project of Srattons’. Before the show, I had a moment to chat with Scott and find out how ‘Sigmund Fried’ came to be.
“I got inspired to do this when I recently bought an electric/acoustic. I realized I had a lot of material that could be performed without a band. Most of these songs were tunes that fell through the cracks and could never have been played in more traditional heavy rock bands because they were too mellow. Even though it's melodious, I call Sigmund Fried "Psychological Thriller Music". I studied psychology at CU Boulder and the name is obviously a play on Sigmund Freud. It also relates to dogmatism, insanity, burnout and the damaged goods nature of being a struggling musician. The lyrics are generally dualistic, philosophical, spiritual and cynically religious. Personally, I've always preferred programmatic, conceptual music and multi-media shows like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and old Genesis”.
I went on to commend him on his courage to bust out and go solo and asked what it’s like to hold his own. “Well,” he said, “logistically, the more people you have in a band the harder it is to coordinate the everyday goings on that a band requires. As you can well imagine ~ it's liberating to be playing solo after being in a 7-man band. I can do most everything on my own time, at home. I’d say the biggest bonus is that I have total creative control of the tunes.” Scott went on to stress, “Even though it’s my show, this was a coordinated effort by many seasoned professionals in multimedia. There was an awful lot of planning involved in pulling this off! They’ve made it very easy for me to relax and play my best. Sigmund Fried is Scott Stratton on acoustic and 12-string electric guitars and vocals. Tonight, accompanying Scott was; Danny Neilson doing laser and visual programming and sound effects, Paul Cassarino on drum pad/effects and previous band mates, Doug Mason (Mime Choir) and Denny Dickson (Southern Voodoo) on vocals and guitar.
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Once we all settled into the living room-like venue, Scott and his guitar took the stage. The lights faded to black and lasers streamed throughout the room exactly in time with his intro, appropriately named, ‘Shimmering’. The sound was lush and multi-layered, while remaining clear and well structured. From there, he flowed right into ‘Back to Heaven’ that had an aurora borealis like laser light show to go along. There are certain problems to be encountered by any band or artist that is consciously avant-garde. Sometimes in attempting to sound far out, musicians inevitably impose restrictions on themselves. There's usually a tendency to regard weirdness as an end in itself, and excesses often ruin good ideas. This is not the case with Sigmund Fried. I could see right away, that this was all in the "turn on your mind" sphere. There were no paradigms, no accepted rules, no laws of the genre. I loved it.
Next he played a beautiful tune called ‘Celestial Tears’ that had Floyd-like tones and strong, occasional heavy playing. There was a certain grandeur here that exceeds mere musical melodramatics and is rarely attempted in rock. The song called ‘Green’ followed. Paul Cassarino accompanied on drums and Doug Mason’s contributing vocals made for some beautiful harmonies. At this point, the songs played were fairly mellow compared to what was to come. In fact, almost hippiesquely mellow. Yet, they came off as accidental masterpieces.
Next on the program was ‘Seasons’. As Scott crooned to the prettiest melody line ever, I was recognizing this song and I was going mad trying to recall it. It ended up being his version of Seasons of Wither by Aerosmith. I had downright forgotten what an amazing song this was and wanted to thank him, personally, for reminding me! When they played ‘Fearless’ from Pink Floyd’s Meddle album, Denny Dickson joined Scott and the dual guitars dazzled just as much as the laser light show. Scott and his crew have a command of electronic instruments who wield an arsenal of sound effects with authority and finesse. Paul the drummer joined in for the next two songs, ‘X’, which was excerpts of Rush’s ‘Xanadu’, and a crowd pleaser called ‘Wolf’. This one had a faster tempo and surprisingly, the electronic drums actually worked for me. The guitar here had glimmers of Jimmy Page’s sound. The music of Sigmund Fried has a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement. It’s cerebral, spiritual and moving, as was the next song he did, ‘Morning Glory’. This instrumental was accompanied by a wild mirror ball light show that wowed. Scott closed up the genre-defying, visual set with his friend, Doug Mason, singing Doug’s own ethereal ‘Candlelight Vigil’.
Scott Stratton has flash ~ the true flash that comes from the excellence of a superb performance. Sigmund Fried is pure, quintessential, raffinated, unadulterated, psychedelic shite. With or without the benefit of mind-altering substances, even the most jaded listener can expect Scott Stratton’s “Sigmund” Fried to put on a show that aims to rattle the senses.
Review by Maya Dawn Henderson
Photos by Joe Petro