“Weird, cool, strange,” “intelligent, imaginative, entertaining,” “witty, crude, sentimental,” “fast and giddy” – critics just can’t seem to crank out adjectives sufficient to encompass the “eight-piece Technicolor extravaganza” that is the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, an “alternative Dixieland, pop, avant-jazz, rock” ensemble who, colorfully garbed in PJs, boxer shorts and other outré attire, have been dumbfounding audiences throughout the Northeast for the past 15 years. Led by Cape Cod’s Chandler Travis, founder of the Incredible Casuals, the CTP are in fact as much admired for their musicianship as for their nuttiness; more particularly, for their ability to augment their “cult glam-rock show” with “arrangements that are almost symphonically meticulous and complex.” To some they sound “an awful lot like the Kinks”; others say they “may remind you of Elvis Costello” or “the Velvet Underground gone berserk.”
Decide for yourself Sunday night at 7 when they return to the Iron Horse in Northampton. The Valley’s own School for the Dead opens. $10 advance; $13 at the door. 586-8686, iheg.com
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