MUSIC

The familiar introduction to Beethoven's "Fur Elise" led, unpredictably, into "The Christmas Song," with its roasting chestnuts and nose-nipping Jack Frost. "Skating" was all jazz piano and rhythm, as was "Christmas Is Coming," leading to the sad conclusion that it's likely no other cartoon will ever have such sophisticated music.

The show's highlight was the soundtrack's "Linus and Lucy," which the band played with a swinging swagger.

For her part, Gunderman, who spoke not a word (perhaps to preserve the mood), looked genuinely happy to be playing the music, smiling throughout -- and if nothing else, she looked a heck of a lot cuter than Schroeder.

-- Buzz McClain

Gutbucket at Galaxy Hut

"We figure we're good dinner music," Gutbucket saxophonist Ken Thomson told the Galaxy Hut patrons who were still finishing their entrees midway through the band's set on Saturday night. "A nice pan-seared tofu, and us."

The joke wasn't based solely on the name. The jazz-punk group's fierce, complex music and its high-speed mutations stimulate the mind, but it's hard to imagine Gutbucket doing much for one's digestion.

The tricky melodies and rhythms of songs such as "Throsp%" and "Money Management for a Better Life" (from its latest album, "Sludge Test") carve themselves into your consciousness through the band's precise, relentless playing. Yet those materials contain the seeds of their own downfall, as Gutbucket gleefully proves by moving to the next musical place before you've had time to settle in with the first one. The band holds still only to support improvised solos, delivered over the weekend in blistering fashion by Thomson and drummer Paul Chuffo.

Besides the deformed Americana of their originals, they also tossed in the best possible rock cover of classical composer Olivier Messiaen's "Dance of Fury, for the Seven Trumpets," nailing its snaky rhythms and ferocious chords as Thomson bounded back and forth across the floor.

Mosquito Death Squadron made some crackling, lively sounds with its batteries of percussion and occasional three-guitar lineup, but its relatively static grooves sounded plain after hearing Gutbucket. MDS's efforts to whip up a frenzy in faster tunes mostly just felt busy, despite the stalwart drumming of the stage-named Pilesar. Mid-tempo songs such as "Insecurity," however, allowed the band to better integrate its diverse array of influences (from punk to surf rock to country) and to turn up the harmonic heat, resulting in some solid entertainment.