The New Orleans Bingo! Show: November 2008

Do ya like the moving pictures? I know, I know. Some say it's a crime against the heavens. But wouldn't you like to know what your captors did with your soul after they claimed it with their wicked devil-lense?

http://www.music.msn.com/voodoo

MSN Video was on hand and all over the place for the entirety of the 2008 Voodoo Experience. Thus far, the performance videos they've posted have been primarily main-stage (with some Preservation Hall stage!), but we're hoping to see a Bingo! Parlour performance wind up there eventually. Meanwhile, the video entitled "This Is The Voodoo Experience" happens to be very Bingo! Parlour heavy. Noisician Coalition! Camel Toe Lady Steppers! New Orleans Bingo! Show! Zydepunks!

Ever wonder what was on the minds of the organizers of the Bingo! Parlour a month before Voodoo? Check out this pre-voodoo interview with Ron Rona and Lloyd Miller:

from NolaFugees.com:
The Bingo! Parlour
Posted on 10/20/08
by Dominique Minor

"DM: How did the Bingo! Parlour stage tent come about?

RR: It's been a concept we wanted to do for quite awhile. Stephen Rehage produces Voodoo, and we worked with him on some other small projects, like Preservation Hall and some other things. It was in 2006 was when I first got with him to talk about stuff. We did the first Preservation Hall Tent at Voodoo with him that year. We wanted to add a kind of dirtier element, and a different element than what they had so far. With the Hall Tent it brought in more traditional New Orleans music and elements. In 2007 we asked for another proposal [which was the Bingo! Parlour Tent], and yeah, we just kind of winged it last year. I think it went well..."

HEY, YOU!!!
Ohhhh... Sorry 'bout that. We were just wondering - you got any pictures of the Bingo! Parlour you're particularly proud of? Your New Orleans Bingo! Show is currently hard at work setting up photo galleries at neworleansbingoshow.com. Turns out, however, that most of Your New Orleans Bingo! Show's production staff was too busy with the ol'TCB to get many good pictures of the hot hot action backstage! So if you've got some shots you'd like to share with the world, we'd love to have a crack at'em. Just send 'em over to:

info@neworleansbingoshow.com

We'd be much obliged!

Holy Cats!

Voodoo, y'all. How about it? Unbelievable. Your New Orleans Bingo! Show cannot possibly begin to put into words the scope of the innumerable and varied range of emotions generated by three days of curating, producing, and performing in the 2008 New Orleans Bingo! Parlour at this year's New Orleans Voodoo Experience.

It's been two weeks. Your New Orleans Bingo! Show has successfully made it through another stimulating run of Halloween performances. Bingo! Parlour press, photos, and fan reviews are flooding the internet. We're gosh-awful proud of the show we put on this year and we want you to see ALL the pretty pictures. As always, we recommend you keep one eye on the Bingo! Blog for ongoing updates and links to all the coolest words and pictures...

Meanwhile, here's what a few of our fans have had to say!

from RollingStone.com:
R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, Lil Wayne Salute New Orleans, Obama at Voodoo Festival
Posted 10/27/08, 1:06 pm EST
by Alex Rawls

"Voodoo merges the national and local on six stages, with music ranging from traditional brass bands to the New Orleans Bingo! Show, which includes a trapeze performer and yes, a game of bingo. Friday night, TV on the Radio relied more heavily on Return to Cookie Mountain than their new Dear Science. Singer Tunde Adebimpe’s left arm had a mind of its own as he paced the stage, waving wildly when it wasn’t pressed behind firmly behind his back, but his voice was low in the mix, so those who didn’t know the songs didn’t know what animated him."

from SmoothJazzSuperstars.blogspot.com:
Voodoo 2008: the Election Edition
Posted 10/27/08, 12:30 pm
by Alex Rawls
"The Bingo! Parlour was the coolest venue at Voodoo - enclosed enough to feel like an environment, but open enough that you didn't have to be inside it to hear. It was also a coherent space, where the theatrical set up framed bands such as the New Orleans Bingo! Show, the Tin Men with the Valparaiso Men's Chorus, and Quintron and Miss Pussycat perfectly. You were cued as to how to appreciate the music in the process, and the setting seemed to bring out the best in the performers. That sort of intelligence also highlights that many of the bands that played there aren't just music creators but art concepts, where the music and the theater are only parts of the whole package."

from NolaFugees.com:
Thoughts on Voodoo Fest: Wrap Up
Posted 10/25/08
by Joe Longo

"I missed the Butthole Surfers , but if they generated a fraction of the awe of their musician peers that Andre Wiliams attained simply for fishing in the pond behind the Bingo! Parlour tent, than they will have cemented their legend."

from BreakfastOnTour.com:
Voodoo Experience 2008: Friday Review
Posted 11/04/08
by Cereal

"We'd spotted the New Orleans Bingo! Parlour from across the press parking lot, and after entering the fest, we wandered over to inspect it more closely. A crowd was gathered for the Zydepunks show that was taking place there, but I have to admit that we were more interested in seeing the Bingo! Parlour's tent in a different setting — it was the same structure that was used for the Establishment at ROTHBURY in July. Decorated in rich reds and blues, the interior looked completely different than it had in Michigan, and it even seemed a bit bigger, perhaps because the chairs and tables that had given it a dinner theater feel at Roth were absent at Voodoo."

from Voodoo08.BlogOfNewOrleans.com (Gambit Daily):
B-I-N-G-O
Posted 10/25/08
by Will Coviello
"In its spiffy new big top tent, the Bingo! Palour has been one of Voodoo’s best and most improved

attractions. Clint Maedgen had a good day with both his Clint + 9 project and here leading the Bingo! Show. The tent has also hosted big touring acts like Man Man, the Gutter Twins and Shudder to Think. But for a mix of music, debauched clowning and boho zeitgeist, the Parlour is well worth some time on Voodoo’s final day."

from wwltv.com:
Voodoo Experience: Two steps back, five steps forward
Posted 10/27/08
by Chad Bower / Eyewitness News
"On the other side of the festival, The New Orleans Bingo! Parlour transformed from a low-key tent to a full-blown circus act, complete with a bright red and yellow exterior and a trapeze. It matches Bingo! Show’s act, which draws from old vaudeville acts to complement vocalist/keyboardist Maedgen’s scratchy voice. To quote Maedgen, the tent is simply “jacked.”

“We really wanted the stage to look like a cabaret. We really want it to feel like our show,” said Ron Rona, member of the Bingo! Show. “If we had to come up with a physical representation of what our show is, we’d like to think it’d be this.”

from blog.nola.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune):
Perfect Weather Helped To Define A Transcendent Voodoofest
Posted 10/27/08, 5:26pm
by Keith Spera, Music Writer, The Times-Picayune
"Place I wish I'd spent more time: The Bingo! Parlour, a full-size, yellow-and-wine-colored big top tent rented from a Florida circus. Bubble machines whirled away outside; inside, red curtains framed the stage and a working trapeze swung overhead. Tellingly, the Fellini-esque junkyard marching band, done up in red, black and white uniforms trimmed with skulls and crossbones, was not even the most bizarre act to appear."

from blog.nola.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune):
Maedgen Brings the Beatles Love to the Bingo! Parlour
Posted 10/25/08, 3:07pm
by Molly Reid, The Times-Picayune
"Beatles fans were treated to a blissful set at the Bingo! Parlour by New Orleans golden boy Clint Maedgen and his "+9" band. Maedgen was actually backed by a

12-piece band, including three string players, two horns, two backup singers, a keyboard player and the usual guitars, bass and drum. The band played tightly-rehearsed, well-arranged selections from the Beatles' middle years. With smiles on their faces and a quick succession between songs, the band seemed to have premeditated a Beatles lovefest, as they performed virtually the happiest, most upbeat selections from The Beatles, commonly known as The White Album, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

from www.tigerweekly.com/parentaladvisory:
Voodoo-In-Review
Posted 10/30/08, 10:03am
by Kaiya Morrison, Senior Writer
"Upon entering the festival to an immediate right was the Le Carnival area, which consisted of the NooMoon stage and the Bingo! Parlor. While the NooMoon stage was pretty much exactly the same as last year, the Bingo Parlor received an amazing upgrade. The tent was circus-style, which allowed for a more comfortable viewing experience than last year. Fans were able to watch performances from outside of the tent as easily as they could from inside. Plus, the video monitors showing the live feed of the performances were much larger."

Many thanks to Jessica Trujillo for the picture of Andre Williams fishing backstage!

Many thanks to Robin Walker for the wonderful pictures of the trapeze, the winner, and the plus 9!

All other photography was posted with the original articles quoted.