"How does that look?" James Henning asks as the final touches of his face paint are put on. He is the lead singer and keyboardist of the band Motaba - and probably it's strangest member.
Tonight he has painted dark circles around his eyes and mouth, his hair is in two braids, and he has hair extensions in an area that probably shouldn't be mentioned.
"I get to be as weird as I like without being judged for it," Henning says.
That is why the members of Motaba love playing; not just to be weird, but to express themselves in ways that they can't in everyday life. They have regular jobs and responsibilities outside. They are schoolteachers, students and fathers during the day, but at night, they get to do whatever they want through their music, and they give the same opportunity to their audience.
Motaba got its name from the fictional disease in the movie Outbreak. Henning joined Motaba in October the last member of the four-person band. It consists of Mike Liebbe (guitar), John Hoffman (drums), John Landy (bass guitar) and Henning.
The band is standing outside the back door. It is almost their turn to go on. It's Saturday night and getting late. A crowd of people has gathered outside The Clubhouse, inside is a dark noisy room with a large group of people. Some are gathered by the stage while others are huddled around the bar.
Their ages range from the early teens to early fifties and their styles are just as contrasting. Spiky belts and random piercings mix with perfectly curled hair and polo shirts. Their appearances may be different but they are waiting for the same thing, a good local band and a short escape from the day-to-day routine.
Outside Motaba waits for the band playing before them to end and explain their style of music.
"It's ADHD music, it doesn't stay in one place to long ... multi genre," Henning says.
"It's pretty much like a Tom and Jerry cartoon gone bad." Liebbe explains.
The music has a little bit of everything in it, they explain. Every song has a theme, it's own story Liebbe says. " It creates it's own environment and emotion."
The music the band plays would be called punk rock if it had to be categorized. But the songs have a wide range, from a cover to the "Top Gun" theme to what sounds like a somber Irish ballad.
"You don't have time to get comfortable with one style. It's gel, subtle, girth," Henning says.
Everything in their lives inspires their music Landy explains. "Jim's dreams, colors, fabrications. Life itself is art."
And the band enjoys every aspect of making music, although they have had some crazy experiences happen to them while performing. Liebbe had a woman crash into him on stage right in the middle of a song, knocking him and the drum set over. He had to grab her butt and push her off stage.
Henning is not worried about crazy fans, though. "No one could get any weirder than me," he says.
He is probably right.
But that is what they love about the music - the freedom it gives them and their fans to be and feel whatever they want
"It's a safe and comfortable environment to become as weird as I like." Henning says.
He explains that he may be this crazy in real life but he can't let it out. He bottles it up until it comes out strong in the music - "like fermenting wine."
"We are suit-and-tie kind of guys in real life," he says.
Their music does offer a certain kind of freedom to themselves and to those who listen to them.
"The way a potter turns clay, we do that with sound and feeling," Henning says.
Liebbe explains that he plays for his daughter, Emmalee, so that she will grow up in a creative environment. He also plays in hopes that the audience will forget their problems, if only for an hour or two.
Motaba's music encompasses "every emotion in the spectrum" as Liebbe says. He also warns that they will "throw you around every emotion you can think of." He says when you walk away, you will have experienced something that will make you leave feeling good.
Reach the reporter at samantha.xanthos@asu.edu.
