Spoonfed Tribe performs 'rhythmic therapy,' with a fiery ending

This is Funkytown, possibly the only place on the planet where you can go into a Western-themed saloon like Lola's Sixth on a Saturday night and find a bunch of hippies celebrating Beltane. Beltane is an ancient festival originally celebrated by the Celts and now by all sorts of people in a variety of ways, usually involving fire. Here in Fort Worth, it also seems to involve pretty girls handing out chocolate while wearing fairy wings, a mentalist and a lot of incredible music.

D. Anson Brody was the opener and delivered a first-rate set. KatsüK took the stage next, always a pleasure.

Between bands, Joe the Mentalist, recently the subject of the DFW.com Ink cover profile, performed. Nice job. But for those who want to keep the mystery in a magic show, I urge you not to watch it through a telephoto camera lens.

All of this, however, was mere prelude to a true Beltane celebration blowout: The headliner of the evening was Spoonfed Tribe, the North Texas quintet that's long been celebrated for its live shows. You can usually get an idea of what a band is going to be like by watching the equipment get set up. When that involves four drum kits, something is usually about to go terribly wrong (in the best sense of that phrase).

The Tribe started off with some weird canned '50s-era theme music, to which the drummers added beats as they went. Frontman and flutist Egg Nebula rocked two microphones, one normal, the other a Shure 55 Elvis mike hooked up to a bizarre effects chain. He went from traditional sounds to weird, synthlike trance effects simply by shifting mikes.

The result was astonishing and, with the thunderous poly-drummers, made the chocolate-distributing fairies frantic.

Onstage theatrics were constant. Guitarist ShoNuff played most of the set wearing a lampshade. When his back was turned, Egg attempted to fill the cowbell he was playing with beer. As the beer ran out the back, he attempted to capture it with the lampshade -- which also doesn't hold liquid. You get the idea.

In addition to Egg and ShoNuff, we had Jerome57 on bass and drums and Kaboom and Gouffahtts on drums. When the band ran short of percussion, ShoNuff would play drums as well and Daniel Katsük (a former Tribe member) was brought back for a few songs to add drums and vocals.

Egg describes the band's music as "rhythmic therapy," and I think that's the best description for it. You could not leave a show this good feeling bad.

"There are songs about love, about loss and learning," says Egg, who writes most of the band's lyrics. "It's hard to break it down to one type feeling or vibe. Each song is of its own. I used to get a little more political, back in my earlier days ... but, I don't know -- it's better to just leave people with a smile."

What the Tribe left people with Saturday night was fire. The band departed the stage carrying marching drums and led the audience out. The show resumed on Lola's newly constructed back deck, where the band finished its set by lighting the drum mallets and drums on fire, as well as burning oil on 50-gallon drums. Talk about going down in a blaze of glory.

The Tribe will be playing an acoustic set May 8 at the Gold Nugget in Arlington. For information, go to myspace.com/spoonfedtribe.