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STREZO LIVE AT KAVARNA

Last Friday I had the opportunity to see local act Strezo perform live at Kavarna.  Strezo is self described as ‘”tribal psych-folk.” We use all acoustic instruments, but use non-traditional chords and tribal-y type drum beats.’ This is definitely true as you can tell in the videos. Members of the band include Kristen Strezo – vocals, Collin Guy – bass and Robert Filippo- percussion.

According to Robert, ‘Kristen is usually wild on stage, she used to do a lot of crazy antics and have costume changes and use props and go into the audience a lot and confront people. Collin is a former actor and plays a lot of different instruments too. I used to play guitar in the band, but then put all the guitar parts on backing tracks and recently started playing percussion.’ In more depth, Robert recorded all of the guitar tracks onto a digital recorder and plays them back through speakers while accompanying them using a metronome which is also rigged through the digital board in a complex maneouvre only capable of someone as intelligent as Mr. Filippo. It is also very true that Kristen goes wild on stage, which you can also witness on the video. The bass player Collin I promised a shout out for his playing, I would definitely consider his style one of the most prolific in the scene, and also very technically dextrous.

Robert also says, ‘The future for us is to go more viral, we’re focusing more on videos than shows right now.
Our music isn’t for everyone, it’s not easily danceable or toe-tapping beer drinking music. We sing about social and political things and experiment with different genres of music. We’re influenced just as much by rock/pop as African and Latin and other folk musics plus modern classical music.’ Giong to show more and more where the group will headed in the future.

All together, the group Strezo kills it. They bring a scene to life, of ancient stories and wild tales that you have to really see live to fully accomplish. The drums and bass come together in wild rhythm and Kristen gives a narrative over it all to organically pull together a loosely woven set which inspires the imagination and sets the listener free in a sense, just by having their ears opened by the music and the stage kineaesthetics.

If you get a chance, visit Strezo’s music on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/strezomusic or check their official site at http://www.strezo.com/. And definitely be on the lookout for Strezo in the future!