Local music and shadow show sells out the Capawock

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The only disappointed people at the Capawock Theatre Saturday night appeared to be the ones who were turned away at the door. The promise of an evening of music by local musicians and a shadow show filled the Vineyard Haven movie theater to capacity.

The show was a successful demonstration of the theater’s potential as a music and performance venue just as the organizer, keyboardist Adam Lipsky, had hoped. The Capawock, beginning its centennial year, is normally a movie theater. It has excellent acoustics but no stage lighting. The use of makeshift floodlights left the performers poorly lit and often in the shadows but that didn’t impede the show. A small platform set up in front of the theater’s narrow main stage served as the stage.

Jellybone Rivers, also known as West Tisbury’s Rob Myers, set the tone for the evening leading a ragtag group of musicians who performed a short eclectic set. He was followed by the ever-engaging velvety voice of Nina Violet. She strummed an electric guitar and sang a set of emotion-laden songs, accompanied by her sister Marciana Jones on several tunes.

The sometimes spellbinding, almost hallucinatory Ouroboros Shadow Picture Show by Alisa Javits and Adam Lipsky with assistance from Justin Taylor included a combination of pre-recorded and live music by Mr. Lipsky and Ms. Violet. Backlit shadow projections of images reminiscent of black-and-white dreams, along with scenes from Orson Welles and other masters of black-and-white film and photography, complemented the accompanying music not unlike the light shows made famous by Jefferson Airplane during their heyday in the 60s. A strange bird-like creature, rumored to be Milo Silva, made occasional flights of fancy during the shadow show changeovers.

The evening closer, Willy Mason, sang a half dozen of his folk inspired songs to the appreciative crowd.

Many seemed not to want see the night end as they stood outside under the marque waiting perhaps to thank the performers again for the good show.