The Little Theater takes it to 11
Local band Syzygy brings its live show to the Los Alamos Little Theater on Dec. 7
Story and photographs by Minesh Bacrania
Boomtown sat down with Los Alamos musicians Kyle Uhlenbrock and Michelangelo Lobato from the local band Syzygy and Los Alamos Little Theater (LALT) President Seona Zimmerman to discuss LALT’s new effort to host live music shows, starting with Syzygy’s all-ages rock concert on Saturday, December 7th.
Boomtown: You guys [Kyle and Michelangelo] have been part of the local music scene for many years now, but this latest incarnation of your band actually came together because of the Little Theater, right?
Michelangelo Lobato: Yeah, Kyle and I have played together for a long time. Dave [Hemsing] and I had played together a little bit, too. We were just kind of a jam band.
Seona Zimmerman: A few years ago Nick [Dennisen] was the music director for the Atomic Follies cabaret. It’s one of the few shows that has live music, and there are different kinds of performances: the burlesque group, the belly dancers, some people sing, some people have dance acts. It’s very fun. People can perform, and be themselves, and feel safe. That’s kind of amazing, in this day and age.
ML: Nick brought in Kyle to play drums for the cabaret, and then Kyle asked me if I would play some guitar leads on a couple songs. And then Dave started playing with us. So we started Syzygy off of that.
BT: What’s with the name “Syzygy”? Webster’s says it’s “the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies [such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse] in a gravitational system.” That’s pretty nerdy.
ML: This band is very, very nerdy. This is the nerdiest band I’ve ever played with.
BT: Are you nerds any good?
ML: I’ve lived here for 15-16 years, and in my opinion, there are just as many good musicians per capita here in Los Alamos as there are in Los Angeles. The musicianship in this band is extremely impressive. Some of the best drummers I’ve ever played with are here, Kyle included. (KU: I didn’t pay him for that.) Nick Dennisen [Syzygy’s keyboard player] is probably one of the most knowledgeable musicians that I’ve ever met in my life. And our bass player Dave Hemsing is phenomenal.
BT: What kind of music do you play?
ML: A lot of classic rock covers, and now we’re also doing a lot of originals, we’re writing stuff that’s more modern rock. I can play anything with these guys. They’re all top-tier musicians. We play anything from Rush to Pink Floyd to —
Kyle Uhlenbrock: — Santana, Bon Jovi, Guns and Roses, Aerosmith. What's so cool about this band is that I'm no longer afraid to suggest doing difficult songs. We all look at covers not only as a challenge, but as something to have fun learning. And the songs that we write ourselves come from a love of music and the passion that we have.
BT: So your show on Saturday at the Little Theater will be an actual rock concert?
KU: I categorize it as hard rock. I say we’re not a scream band. We’re not a metal band. Classifying it as a hard rock band, to me, that’s telling our audience that we’ve got distortion, we’ve got live drums. It’s going to be a rock concert.
ML: The thing I’m excited about with this show is that it’s all ages, too.
KU: I will throw in, too, that Kyle’s got a drum solo. I hope that’s a selling point.
BT: This isn’t the kind of show I’d expect at the Little Theater.
SZ: This theater has been evolving from what had been an older, more conservative group, but now has a lot of younger people, a lot of newer ideas. We've been gradually putting on bigger shows. It's been evolving in a very positive direction and we're getting a lot of young people moving into the area that are interested in doing theater. We're also trying to round out our programming and make better use of this space.
So this [live music] is a new program that we're launching, and it was kind of a no-brainer to ask Syzygy to be first in trying to do a show here. These guys already know the venue. Later in February, around Valentine’s Day, we're going to have Heather and the Bad Breaks, and we’ll try and bring in the swing dancing group (Atomic City Swing). This is actually a very good floor for dancing.
BT: Will you be signing autographs?
KU: I've never written an autograph. I've signed my name on a lot of documents, but they tell me it's different than that. So I'm still trying to come up with an autograph. But I mean to that one person that says, hey man, can I get a picture with you? Absolutely. Every musician loves a fan and musicians and their success is nothing without their fans. So I invite everybody and anybody to approach us and talk music. We all love music and we want to share that with our audience.
The bottom line:
Syzygy – an all-ages rock concert
Under 12 free, otherwise $10 at the door or at www.lalt.org
Saturday, Dec. 7, 7-10 p.m., just after the Holiday Lights Parade
Los Alamos Little Theater, 1670 Nectar Street, across from Central Park Square
Food and drink by Pi-239 brick-oven pizza