The lights dim. The crowd cheers. A strange vibrating humming sound fills the room. The crowd wonders. The curtain lifts and the audience strains to see the source of this droning, tribal sound – is it a didgeridoo? – through the bright white lights innervating the smoke-filled stage.
After a moment the smoke clears and we are able to see a blonde haired man in a disheveled blue track suit blowing into a black plastic hose connected to an electric clothes dryer?
The stage at the Roxy Theatre on Sunset looks more thrift store or junk yard than Hollywood Rock and Roll. But this is not your father’s rock and roll band. Hurra Torpedo, Norway’s premier kitchen appliance band, puts on a live music spectacle that is equal parts rock and roll, theatrics, and good old fashioned fun. This quirky trio of Scandinavian 30-somethings delivers a unique brand of catchy pop and rock and roll hi-jinks by mixing spirited guitar-driven melodies with kitchen appliance-based percussion. To wit, in addition to electric guitar and electric bass, the “instruments” onstage include a large chest freezer, several stoves, a clothes dryer, the internal drum of a front-loading washing machine, and several other household appliances and implements.
Lead percussionist Kristopher Schau begins tapping a beat on two different stoves using three-foot long metal poles (each fitted with a heavy caster wheel) as drumsticks. The scene is bizarre but the beat, which can be felt across the room, actually sounds better and more interesting than a drum kit. Setting one pole aside, Schau keeps a bass beat by rhythmically opening and closing the door of the large chest freezer at his side.
Lead singer and guitar player Egil Hegerberg and bass player Aslag Guttormsgaard (not to mention back-up vocalist and percussionist) take turns addressing the crowd, “Hello beautiful people in this beautiful city. We are Hurra Torpedo from the place that we come!”
“We are going to start with a song in your dialect, in your Aryan dialect.” The guitarists attack the song in earnest and immediately hook the crowd with a catchy bluesy guitar riff. With the determined expression of seasoned performers the singers look out at the crowd, step up to their microphones and with powerful synchronized larynxes begin to scream the horrifying scream of a child’s nightmare. This is not a stunt, this is energizing rock and roll.
After a minute of head-bobbing, toe-tapping music the song is over and the singers address the crowd. “You LA people are really beautiful, and that song was ‘Hanky Panky'” intones Hegerberg, whose wild hair and thick natty beard give him the appearance of some kind of tall devil hobbit. “A little slap on the ass for that!” he continues, playfully turning his back to the crowd and bending over slightly to highlight his slightly exposed bum to deliver what he’d promised.
Thus begins an evening of surprisingly enjoyable musical mayhem. Before the night is over the crowd will have fallen in love with Hurra Torpedo after: energetically dancing a square dance; singing along to original tunes as well and m lange of covers songs; and relishing the cathartic destruction of two stoves.
The band walks offstage after a particularly destructive rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s 80’s hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (their rendition became a viral video) leaving the adoring and cheering audience hungry for more. After a brief break the band reemerges for rollicking renditions of GNR’s “Paradise City” and a Prince parody, “When Stoves Cry”, further cementing the crowd’s affectionate respect for its new heroes.
Notes added by the photographer: You may wonder why their asses are half hanging out of their track suits. Well have you ever tried to run around on stage and destroy kitchen appliances?with your pants being held up with worn elastic? They have been using the same track suits for over ten years.
