If you didn’t see Bent Knee’s visit in January, then you don’t know.. you just don’t know how superbly they tore it up.  It was one of the shows people have talked most about in our Organ Grinders series. As a band, Bent Knee has a powerful shifting sound, great for soundtracks and the kind of thing I imagine symphony orchestras morphing into after another 200-500 years of evolution.  We invited then back this season with a new challenge, the granddaddy of silent films, Metropolis.  It’s possible you haven’t seen it, if so it ranks among the most “you should see” films ever.  And not in a boring required-reading sense; it’s alive and modern in its grinding gears, robots and rebellion.  It’s one of my favorite films and although I haven’t heard what Bent Knee is brewing up yet, I think you might want to check it out!

On August 17th come by the Hollywood to see Metropolis, the finest German Expressionist sci-fi flick about a futuristic urban dystopia ever made. Working with Boston band Bent Knee for a special live soundtrack composed and performed by the seven piece band, we’re excited to be presenting the work of Bent Knee on the big screen for a night that harks back to vaudeville and a time when people wore bowler hats sans-irony.  Come early to hear a performance on the Hollywood organ by Mike Bryant of the Columbia River Theatre Organ Society.

ORGAN GRINDERS: METROPOLIS
AUGUST 17th – 8pm
Theatre Organ music at 7:30pm
Hollywood Theatre
$12 – Tickets available at the door and online at http://bit.ly/NYim0L

BENT KNEE – The dark winters of Boston bore a band that crawled out of the womb and called itself Bent Knee. Orchestral textures, haunting vocals, dynamic sound and presence are the calling card for this twisted little group. When taken to the stage, seven creatures sawing away on their instruments makes for an immersive journey and an intimate conversation all at once. With orchestral textures and haunting vocals, Bent Knee’s live show is an immersive journey and an intimate conversation all at once.

METROPOLIS – In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. Filmed in 1927 by Fritz Lang, Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film stars Alfred Abel as the leader of the city, Gustav Fröhlich as his son, who tries to mediate between the elite caste and the workers, Brigitte Helm as both the pure-at-heart worker Maria and the debased robot version of her, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist who creates the robot.

Beverly Ruth Nelson Memorial Organ provided by the Columbia River Theatre Organ Society, www.crtos.org