A Riot of their own

In a music scene where flannel remains a fashion statement, Fort Wilson Riot stands out. The flamboyantly costumed Twin Cities quartet draws in audiences with theatrical stunts, trading instruments back and forth, dancing wildly on stage and supplying the occasional touch of harmonica -- played through a flowerpot.

"We like to have fun," said drummer Ben Smith. "When we started, we wanted to be a visual presence, not just stand onstage and play our instruments, like so many other bands. We are a spectacle. If you're onstage, you might as well use it."

Fans of Broadway musicals, film and fantasy literature, the band has taken the next logical step with its new project: "Idigaragua," which is both a concept album and an "indie-rock opera" opening this week at Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis.

"It's magical realism, where anything and everything can and does happen, including dancing cactuses," said the show's director, Jeremey Catterton, a friend of the band who moved to Minneapolis to work on the project after hearing the album. "'Idigaragua' is a hybrid of a rock show and an opera. It's Wagnerian, using all the devices known to man -- music, dance, theater. Opera was a rock show!"

Inspired by two Paul Bowles short stories ("Tapiana" and "A Distant Episode"), "Idigaragua" centers on the epic adventures of a naive American journalist abroad. Captured by pirates, he saves himself by glorifying them in the media, then escapes to an idyllic village, only to destroy it through globalization.

"He's a Western idealist, following the classic Western ideals, some of which have become clichés," said Smith.

Originally, "Idigaragua" was one of the first songs written by FWR after its multitasking members -- besides Smith, there's Amy Hager (vocals, keyboards, guitar, horns), Jacob Mullis (vocals, lead guitar) and Joe Goggins (bass, vocals, beat-boxing) -- decided to form a band after playing together at a wedding in 2004. Over the past two years, that song has evolved into an hourlong, five-part epic in a collage of styles, including rock, pop, punk, cabaret, jazz, hip-hop and funk.

Mullis plays the journalist. "He's very naive at times regarding what goes on in the real world and his effect on the real world," Mullis said. "He's left naked as a person, and he has to rebuild his ego as he goes, with the decisions that he's making. The idea is how he reacts to these things as a child of Western culture."

Throughout the story, he's followed by a mystical bird named Idigaragua, played by Hager, whose vocals weave and soar as she sings achingly beautiful harmonies with Mullis. The bird also magically transforms into a lover and an ominous rider -- sung and played in Pink Floyd-esque style by Goggins -- who trails the journalist in the desert. Ultimately, the bird is the journalist's conscience, his internal judge, his remorse and regret.

Magical realism threads throughout "Idigaragua," particularly in an eight-minute scene depicting the building and destruction of a civilization, using video and film projection (an angry mob destroys the projection equipment). A puppet journalist is torn limb from limb by puppet dogs. The sets are simple and symbolic.

FWR will perform the score on an elevated stage while actors lip-synch to the music.

Bedlam Theatre, with its radical reputation for mixing theater, puppetry, music, film and art, is the perfect host for "Idigaragua," which was first sampled at the theater's Ten-Minute Play Festival.

"We knew Bedlam would be the best fit because of their experimentation," Smith said. "When we said, 'We're going to do a rock opera, with puppets and dancing,' they didn't shy away from it at all."