Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : Devil Music Ensemble and Mr. Hyde

"Devil Music Ensemble explores all facets of music from rock to electronic, orchestral to folk, and improvisational to incidental."

They have focused on composing soundtracks for silent films and performing live at screenings. Their latest project is this version of Jekyll and Hyde.
I just learned of it (and them) through a notice from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. They're performing there on September 24th.

I've never heard DME, but have seen "Metroplis" accompanied on the pipe organ, and "Joan of Arc" accompanied by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and "Dracula" accompanied by Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet and enjoyed them all so I'll be sure to check this out as well.

Thought you might like to know they may be in your area as well.

http://www.massdist.com/DME/DME.htm

They do a very good job; I saw them in Charlottesville last night.

I just saw their performance in Eau Claire, WI. wow. it rocked. more groups need to do stuff like that. and the best part, it only cost me $2! yay, college!

I'm happy to hear you guys saw them and enjoyed the show. As for me, my boss shipped me to Boca Raton, Florida for a training seminar - flying out on the day of the Chicago show.

As for the trip - all work coupled with major flight headaches. Thanks boss.

Okay recovery time: Going to see Calexico tomorrow night, despite the lack of sleep. Which has nothing to do with movies. Sorry to stray off-topic.

I just saw them tonight it was great.

I just saw them perform in Normal, IL last night. It was great. Sometimes it's hard to get into silent movies without someone playing some sounds or music.
It is quite a combination of great music and a great movie.
Someone at the theater forgot to turn the piped music off for the first five minutes. So when the guys were pausing or playing softly, in the background was some classical piano and violin music. They thought it was funny and chuckled.
Also some of the drums and symbol crashes kept on spooking this guy in front of us.

I saw them Friday night in Columbia. Wonderful performance!

Yeah just saw them tonight, I feel they surpassed the film in their performance, which was excellent. Bought their soundtrack for Dr. Caligari as well, great stuff.

Just saw them play Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington LI and loved it.

They will be performing at the Amherst Cinema showing of Barrymore's Dr. J & Mr. H on Sunday, November 7, at 6:00pm Amity Street in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This, sadly, was pretty poorly attended - only around 50 in the audience, so I wonder whether the Amherst Cinema will risk another silent movie in the near future. Devil Music Ensemble weren't bad, given that there are only three of them, and at least it wasn't grotesquely over-amplified like the performance of Nosferatu with the Alloy Orchestra had been at Mass MOCA in North Adams two nights before (which by contrast was very well supported). That said, the Alloy Orchestra with its huge range of junk percussion conjured up a more nightmarish accompaniment than did Devil Music Ensemble, which tended to rely too much on repetitive Philip Glass-style repeating patterns. Neither score was remotely as good as those the incomparable Carl Davis prepared for many of the Thames Silents at the London Film Festival in the 1980s and 1990s, commencing with Abel Gance's stupendous Napolon in 1980. Davis, though, had the luxury of a full symphony orchestra at his disposal for several of his. It would be fantastic to get, say, the 1924 Fred Niblo Ben Hur, or Rex Ingram's 1922 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with orchestra, at a nice big venue in Massachusetts like Symphony Hall, Boston, but I fear that's going to remain a pipe dream!