White Collar Sideshow – The Horrors of Obsession
Steve Barton
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Passion or obsession? Pleasure or pain? Life or death? These are the questions posed by White Collar Sideshow, a musical performance group that uses horror imagery and the sound of creative percussion to impart a message of horror and redemption.
I was recently lucky enough to watch their performance live and was blown away by the combination of images and rhythm these folks use to get their point across.
White Collar Sideshow is the dreamchild of T.D. Benton, The Ringmaster of the show, created after a nightmarish journey through affliction and addiction. This is his sideshow, a trip through his personal hell, presented as a cautionary tale for those who will listen.
WCS is made up of The Ringmaster, The Faceless Woman, The Mask, and The Leech. Veronica Benton, T.D.’s wife (also The Faceless Woman), describes the show very accurately as “the Blue Man Group meets Rob Zombie”.
The music is performed over the top of recorded voice and FX tracks, all accompanied by their live performance and videos played to tell the tale along with T.D.’s between-song narration. The videos are a mix of classic silent horror and pieces created by the group. I caught clips from Edison’s Frankenstein, the first horror movie ever made, as well as the silent Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and other early horror masterpieces.
The videos created by the group hold up well in comparison. My favorite piece is a new one, Behold, The Faceless Woman, which frankly needs to be in film festival competition for short subject. Check it out below, and tell us what you think.
Next is a trailer for what will be their second version of the show, which should hit the road in 2012: Diving into film, media, and live performance, dreamer and creator T.D. Benton (Crash Landing, LLC) alongside the “WCS” media mastermind/film editor Travis Joiner (777 Productions) are soon to bring you a film and live performance based on seven hidden addictions and the personal hell that goes through the mind of an addict as each individual’s life slowly falls apart. This show, The WitcHunt, will raise the level of horror significantly, as you can tell by the video.
White Collar Sideshow are on tour, well, constantly. They live on the road, literally, traveling the country in the spirit of the sideshows of old. For tour info and to hear more of their music, be sure to check out their MySpace and Facebook pages.
– Mr. Dark
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