OC LIVE! : Bad Boys of a Cappella Are Good at Time Travel

While some artists seem to streak into the public eye like a star cut loose from the cosmos, others take some time to reveal their brilliance. In the case of the EDLOS, it took about 700 years.

Also known as “the Bad Boys of a Cappella,” this foursome of classically trained singers brings to its concerts a unique blend of a cappella vocals, offbeat humor and outlandish costumes and props. They also pack a finely tuned sense of the absurd that makes the ancient musical form of a cappella singing fully accessible, indeed enjoyable, to young audiences.

On Saturday, the EDLOS will premiere a new holiday show, witha lineup that spans centuries and ethnicities to include a 15th-Century Spanish motet, such seasonal chestnuts as “Little Drummer Boy” and “White Christmas” and “Sim Shalom,” a contemporary song heard in Jewish High Holidays celebrations. The performance at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton is recommended for all ages.

The pacing and visuals in the holiday show promise to be just as eclectic as the tunes themselves. Early on, the men perform the ancient “Ave, Maria” dressed in monks’ robes, later doffing them to reveal nuns’ habits for a rollicking version of “Dominique.” And for that extra holiday sparkle, they perform the traditional lighting of the EDLOS, which involves the members wrapping themselves in Christmas lights, singing all the while.

EDLOS is an acronym for Excessive Decibel Levels from Outer Space. As their story goes, the four men--bass Ed Cohn, baritone Larry Venza, tenor Eric Morris and second tenor Craig Knudsen--are natives of the Planet A (pronounced ah ), which circles the star Cappella. But their loud singing so irritated fellow Cappellans that they were bundled into a space capsule and jettisoned to Earth. They crashed outside a French monastery in the 13th Century, where they brushed up their a cappella skills before making their respective ways in the world.

Suffice to say those ways were colorful. You might even say psychedelic.

Among his accomplishments, Cohn lists a 75-year stint in the 19th Century with the Bolshoi Opera and faking his death in 1938 to evade the war draft. Venza says he earned his keep as valet to noblemen (waiter jobs apparently being in short supply in the 18th Century) before inspiring and singing the title role in “The Marriage of Figaro” in the 19th Century and becoming a cowboy, millionaire and Mafia rum runner in the present century.

Knudsen, dually gifted with a loud voice and a lanky frame, says he led his team to the Medieval Pre-Basketball League Championships before ditching the sport to sing opera. And Morris, the group’s unofficial spokesman, claims to have racked up centuries of experience as a balladeer and operetta singer before floating (literally) to a new life in San Francisco, where the 1906 quake so shook him that he spent the next 60 years in monastic meditation.

Their actual credits are impressive if not quite so grandiose. Individually, the four men have soloed or performed key roles with such respected companies as the Santa Fe Grand Opera, the Marin Symphony, the Long Beach Grand Opera, the William Hall Chorale of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Ballet; Knudsen has also worked with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. As the EDLOS, their repertoire swings from original songs to a cappella takes on big band, light opera, gospel, heavy metal, country and beyond.

The EDLOS partnership was born six years ago at a cast party for the San Francisco-based Pocket Opera, of which all four were members.

“It was really just kind of a fluke; I think we’d all had a bit too much Pepsi that night,” Morris laughingly recalled in a phone interview from his Napa home. “I had some men’s music with me, and I arbitrarily picked some guys I thought would sound good together. It turned out to be a magical moment.”

Since then, the EDLOS have opened for such stars as Ray Charles, Lou Rawls and Bonnie Raitt. They’ve played the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., as well as a string of community concert venues and colleges, including Orange Coast College and the Pacific Amphitheatre, both in Costa Mesa. The latest of their four CDs is “A Cappella Country.”

Between concerts, the EDLOS members slip in master classes in choral music for school-age children. Although some youngsters may feel intimidated by what Morris called the “elitist image” of classical music or opera, he said they generally take to a cappella easily, in part because of its similarity to rap.

“Rap music is basically about taking the vocal line and having it be its own thing,” Morris explained. “The accompaniment in rap is very sparse.

“I think people nowadays want to hear the words; even the most dedicated rap fan will support that. And that’s what a cappella music is best for. There’s no dilution.”

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* What: The EDLOS Holiday Show.

* When: Saturday, 8 p.m.

* Where: Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton.

* Whereabouts: From the Orange (57) Freeway, exit at Chapman Avenue and drive west. The auditorium is at corner of Chapman and Lemon Street.

* Wherewithal: $12.50 to $17.50; $2 advance purchase discounts for students and senior citizens. Parking is $3.

* Where to call: (714) 773-3371.

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CHILDREN’S LISTINGS, P 20