The Alabama Music Box traded its usual setup for holiday spectacle in late December 2013, with Christmas trees suspended from the ceiling and festive lighting overhead as Brooklyn’s French Horn Rebellion brought its brass-meets-electronics show to downtown Mobile.
The band, normally the project of brothers David and Robert Perlick-Molinari, toured that December at half strength — David sat out the run for health reasons. Robert carried on with a expanded backing lineup: keyboardist, drummer and a female vocalist whose parts a two-piece couldn’t otherwise cover.
One Horn, Reinvented
The group’s signature move is right there in the name. Where the french horn usually lives in classical repertoire, French Horn Rebellion runs it through live processing — Robert works from a Mac Mini wired into Ableton software, layering loops on the fly and bending each instrument’s sound well past recognition. Underneath it all: thudding bass, swirling synth chords and live drumming that keeps the electronic arrangements anchored to a human rhythm.
An Intimate Night
Holiday travel kept the crowd smaller than the band might draw in another season, but those who came made up for it in enthusiasm. Robert jumped off the stage before the encore to slap high fives across the room, and the band lingered at the bar afterward, talking with fans and signing autographs.
For Mobile’s indie-electronic faithful, it was a low-key but memorable stop on a tour warming up material ahead of bigger rooms — and a reminder that the Music Box could deliver touring acts worth braving a December night for.