The Invincible Czars: Napoleon's 1812 Bicentennial Picnic
(A Battle of the Russian and French Classics)
Austin-based Invincible Czars, a high-spirited 6-piece band that combines nightclub sensibilities with nuanced composition, arrangement and performance, will perform their modernized version of Tchaikovsky's most bombastic piece, 1812 Overture, at a family-friendly concert commemorating the events that inspired the piece.
The band will pit the Russian and French classical canons against one another, performing whimsical interpretations of works by Satie, Debussy, Tchaikovsky and others. Each side will deliver one artistic blow after another amid a battlefields of dancing kids, hula hoops, and beach balls.
Attendees are encouraged to dress in costume! Prizes will be awarded for the "Most French" and "Most Russian" wardrobe.
Opening for The Invincible Czars will be Austin's very own physical comedian and juggler extraordinaire Ben Schave of the vaudevillian duo Schave and Reilly.
TICKETS ARE $10 IN ADVANCE, or $15 DAY OF SHOW AT BOX OFFICE
Box office opens at 1 hour before show time.
The Invincible Czars are one of Austin's most adventurous rock bands. In addition to creating and performing original music with an enormous breadth of influences and styles, the band also performs their own modernized and Austinized arrangements of works by classical composers. Their latest effort - 1812 Overture - commemorates bicentennial of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 which inspired Tchaikovksy's most bombastic piece. The short album also includes works by Ravel, Sousa and one original by (ex) drummer Louis Landry.
The group's original songs and instrumental pieces are highly composed "mini-symphonies" chock full of memorable melodies, meticulous arrangements, dynamics, and humor. They fuse all riff rock, classical music, loungey grooves, spacey klezmer, country shuffles, and circusy polka. They draw from influences as disparate as Igor Stravinsky, Brave Combo, Van Halen, Louis Armstrong, The Melvins and Ween. The band applies the DIY attitude of post-punk groups like NoMeansNo and Fugazi to their musical explorations.
The Invincible Czars strive to do more than the standard rock band playing in night clubs. In the past few years, they have known and lauded for their arrangements of classical works such as Tchaikovsky'sNutcracker Suite, 1812 Overture and A Night on Bald Mountain.
The group has ventured more into event territory even putting on their own! The Austin American Statesman recently praised the group's first annual "Olde Fashioned Independence Day Indoor Picnic" at the Austin Scottish Rite Theater and the Czars' annual "dance-along" Nutcracker Kids' Show has become an annual tradition. They even co-present and unofficial showcase during SxSW each year called the Bizarrebecue presenting the best of what's weird in Austin during the conference.
The Invincible Czars are known by many for their original new scores for silent movies which they perform live at indoor and outdoor theaters. In their nine years of existence, the band has performed at private events, nightclubs, parks, theaters, museums, radio stations, community centers, museums, grocery stores, restaurants, television stations, sky scraper plazas, bedrooms and radio studios from San Francisco to New Orleans.
