In the year 2001, the music world showed us crossover duets from music of different genres, which was wonderful in some ways. Musicians from what seemed like different spheres coming together for a single purpose. On the other hand, it only helped feed the monster which is the new style of music, created by record company executives, meant to encompass all genres solely as popular music; the monotonous sea of sameness, leaving out all room for creativity.

But some bands actually manage to shake the musical soup. One such band is The Alienist Outfit, a band making music that may not fit neatly on any shelf in a record store today, yet their own unique sound is full of passion and genuinely enjoyable to listen to.

The Alienists Outfit’s distinctive new style of music may be accounted for by the band member’s wide variety of musical tastes. Interviewed individually, they cited their influences from bands like The Beatles, to The Pixies, to Mr. Bungle and Jimmy Hendrix. All these inspirations come together to make a sound reminiscent of a time when music meant something and musicians sang songs, rather than stars.

The small stage at TT the Bear’s seemed crowded with all six members on stage, but the sound that emitted from the drums, keyboard, base, two guitars, and vocals, blended wonderfully. Together, the band had an extreme energy and comfort on the stage, which was useful when they needed to entertain the crowd sans their guitarist Bert Foster while he fixed his amp.

Chris Olds (vocals) and Tom Korkidis (guitar, vocals) offered to play requests, though not from bands they disliked. It was suggested that Joe Faria (bass) would give out free kisses, though Joe did not make the offer. It was also announced during this time, that they would soon be looking for a new guitarist to fill Bert’s place. By the end of the slight technical difficulty, the audience was as much at ease as the band and enjoyed the show much more for it.

Personally I found the band charming, though as the night progressed the one on one interviews I conducted with each band mate seemed to have more and more of an alcoholic tone, as they seemed less willing to seriously answer my questions. When asked the meaning of life Chris Olds the first to be interviewed honestly could not answer the question.

By the time I got to asking the same question to Joe Faria, the answer was “Nintendo.” Almost no two members answered the same to one question, but for the question “when starting the band, what was your goal?” there was one unanimous absence of an answer.

Whether they were as passionate as Chris Olds who said he could not picture doing anything else with his life other than music, or as casual as Vince Fairchild (keyboards) who just “wanted experience in a band,” or as novel as Josh Fleischmann (drums) who claimed the goal was to “further Tom’s bid for the presidency,” not one of the six band members answered “fame”.

In fact, when asked the question “what would you sacrifice for fame?” Bert Foster said, “Time,” then thought and revoked his statement, “no, I’d sacrifice time for personal success, but I wouldn’t sacrifice anything for fame.” So where have all the musicians gone? See them November 30 at The Sky Bar in Somerville.