Who is drawn to a rock band starring neuroscientists? More than 300 people in Washington, D.C., apparently, who grooved in the foyer of the Kennedy Center on Thursday to the Amygdaloids’ songs about fear, love and passion, not only from the inner depths of experience but also from the band mates’ extensive knowledge of neural pathways.
Joseph LeDoux—songwriter, lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player and member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives—leads this “heavy mental” garage band, which also includes Tyler Volk on lead guitar, Nina Curley on bass guitar and Daniela Schiller on drums. All are New York University scientists—three neuroscientists plus an environmental biologist (Volk).
”Why do we feel so afraid?” the band asked in the first song of the evening. The answer is in the song’s title, “All in a Nut,” referring to the amygdala, the almond-shaped mass in the brain that is linked to fear. The medication referred to in “The Memory Pill” isn’t for enhancement but rather to “wash away my memories . . . my childhood stress.” After the song, Volk asked, “Have we developed that pill yet?” So far, only for mice, his bandmates told him.
LeDoux described his next song, “The Trace,” as a synaptic representation of love: “You’re a dominant trace, a permanent place ... Time heals all pain ... Time can heal your place in my brain.”
Between songs LeDoux said he recently learned from a geologist friend that an amygdaloid is actually an igneous rock. “The band doesn’t care,” he said. “We’re keeping the name.”
Volk contributed a lament called “Extinction” that suggests that humans may one day face the same fate as the carrier pigeon and the dodo, replaced by androids as evolution continues. LeDoux introduced “When the Night is Dark” as an ode to either “a rat or a night owl type of person, like I used to be and hope to return [to being].”
After the concert, the band was surrounded by its own style of groupies, such as a New York University alum who works for the Food and Drug Administration, learned of the concert on an Internet listserv and just had to walk over to the show to shake LeDoux's hand.
LeDoux said the band started as simple jam sessions with Volk. They played an NYU Christmas party, where Schiller told them she played drums and wanted to join. She later brought Curley in.
The band had its first official gig on November 1, 2006. LeDoux said the band rehearses only when it has a gig coming up; for the Kennedy Center performance, the players rehearsed only once because they had recently rehearsed for a San Antonio date. The band now has a CD; Thursday's performance is in the Center's Web archive.
And why is LeDoux no longer a night owl? As ushers encouraged the band and crowd to leave, he answered with a single word: “Kids.”
—Rosemary Shields
Also see: The Washington Times feature story on the Amygdaloids, in its Jan. 29 issue.
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