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Story and photos by Brad Walseth
The Section Quartet (TSQ) successfully kicked off their national tour Friday night
at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago with two sets of their uniquely high energy
presentation of modern rock songs mutated into electrified string quartet
arrangements. Celebrating their major label debut Fuzzbox (Decca) - violinists
Eric Gorfain and Daphe Chen, violist Leah Katz and cellist Richard Dodd -
entertained the audience with delirious versions of The Strokes' "Juicebox," Queens
of the Stone Age's "No One Knows," Muse's "Time is Running Out," The Postal
Service's "Such Great Heights," Tool's "Undertow," Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun,"
Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and more. These talented musicians have considerable
experience backing many other artists on recordings including Foo Fighters, Devendra
Banhart, Maroon Five, James Blunt, Christina Aguilera, Grant Lee Phillips, Rilo
Kiley along with numerous movie soundtracks,
but now the TSQ are striking out on their own with abandon.
The second set showcased the self-proclaimed "loudest string quartet on the planet"
performing Radiohead's opus OK Computer in its entirety. Wringing waves of pathos
from the songs, TSQ exploited the symphonic nature of this work in an emotional
manner that had the audience singing along to "No Surprises" and "Karma Police" ("I
lost myself"). The technical demands of this work stretched the abilities of the
players and even led to Dodd having to replace a broken string on his cello. The
unlikely combination of classical string instruments with hard driving rock music
succeeded brilliantly due to the abilities of the players, the intelligent
arrangements and intriguing song choices, as audiences attending concerts on this
tour will no doubt soon find out for themselves.
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