I had no idea what to expect from Hard Rubber Orchestra. I’ve really been into Raymond Scott’s Pushbutton Parfait so my mind casually drifted into expecting something more Swing oriented. They did say Big Band, and I took the “like no other” with a grain of salt. I shouldn’t do that with Open Ears performances, but I’ve got too many years of cynicism to quash before I accomplish that. So after the first song the names Lalo Scifrin, and Gert Wilden Orchestra came to mind. Certainly not funky like Gert Wilden or as lush as say the Peas compilations on Crippled Dick. This does fall into the arena of soundtrack to Diry Harry though. They’re much more in your face, and far more advanced than a film music orchestra. Evidently they’ve done film music and several other flavours of collaboration. They are worth seeing, and the old theatre in Waterloo was a perfect venue.
