For several days, you could find any one of the members of the Vermont Joy Parade roaming the streets of Burlington, busking on Church Street or outside a local coffee shop, maybe even driving YOU back from an eye doctor's appointment in a hydrogen-powered cab. The band, a collective of Burlington musicians who mix gypsy jazz, old-timey, jugband blues and hillbilly punk, has toured the country since 2008 playing venues grand and small, from street corners in California to in front of thousands at Bonnaroo. In a veggie-powered bus and an entourage of street musicians, artists and hobos, they're just as much a moving force as they're a traveling band.
After teases around town all week, the full circus came to Burlington for an album release party at Parima on Tuesday night. (Notice I said album, as in vinyl: No CD or download.)
The big top atmosphere was present throughout the entire night.
During every song, the ringleader and band cheerleader Phinn would juggle glow-in-the-dark spheres, and after every song, he would grab a megaphone and shout "Give a hand for the Vermont Joy Parade! From Bur-ling-ton, Ver-mont!" Spontaneous dance circles busted out on the dance floor and at the start of the second set, an impromptu game of limbo was arranged, with the limbo stick a broken mop handle. For the encore, the band invited everyone on stage who had an instrument in what turned out to be twenty people on stage.
