“Gypsy (Improv)” takes place in what appears to be an empty club – empty except for serious demeanored cellist Brandon Smith and blonde bombshell of the year Joey Rainbow. Smith plays the cello in a wild, passionate improvisational manner that feels as if Sun Ra is channeling his rambunctious spirit from a distant paradise. While Smith goes wild on the cello, the colored lights of the club flash on and off in a garish, almost fatalistic rhythm. A circle of candles arranged on a stool in front of him provides the only constant illumination.
Parallel to this light and sound show is the gorgeous Rainbow, clad in very tight black leather, with her long blonde hair flowing to the lower regions of her back. She engages in what could be considered an interpretative dance, or perhaps it is a classic bump-and-grind meshed with a trendy 60s-style dance. Every now and then, her swaying arms find their way to a convenient set of bongos, and she pounds out the harshest percussion warnings this side of “The Emperor Jones.”
The combination of Smith’s madly original musical composition and Rainbow’s boner-generating gyrations, couple with filmmaker Joel Vetsch’s wonderfully warped camera tracking, results in a hallucinogenic video experience. Watch this one with the lights off and the wine glass filled to the rim – it makes this funky whirlwhind all the more intoxicating.
