Inge Berge
INGE BERGE, a NORWAY native, came to Boston in 1989 and went to BERKLEE. A young man full of half-baked dreams of becoming a famous Hollywood composer, he undertook a course of study in the art of FILM SCORING. Nothing ever really came of that. Instead, he settled in Gloucester, MA, where he got a gig as Resident Music Director at the GLOUCESTER STAGE CO. While there, he wrote, arranged and performed for various & sundry productions including original ISRAEL HOROVITZ plays, and a number of successful musical tribute shows (notably PAUL SIMON, CAROLE KING, GEORGE GERSHWIN.) It stands noting that nowadays, whenever Mr. Horovitz sees Inge on the street, he turns on his heel and runs away. There’s a story there.
While enjoying his tenure among the refined thespians at GSC, Inge also cultivated his songwriting, putting his skills to use in the critically acclaimed trio VAGABOND VISION and later with the much more eclectic glam-rock ensemble THE INGE BERGE BAND. Both bands gained a tiny cult-following on the North Shore and in Boston.
In 2000, Inge stumbled into a national touring gig as lead guitarist for FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL. He has since spent a majority of his time on THE ROAD, performing with BROADWAY PRODUCTIONS and providing the riffs for performers such as FRANKIE AVALON and CHUBBY CHECKER. Venues played include such hallowed halls as THE WANG CENTER, Boston, MA and THE KODAK THEATER, Hollywood, CA, - and more recently a stint in JAPAN performing THE WHO'S TOMMY in the heart of Tokyo's entertainment district. The Japanese liked Inge, and Inge liked playing for them, perhaps mostly because Inge had always dreamed of playing in a show involving pyrotechnics, and this show had’em. Those were good days. Inge often wishes he could afford to go back to Japan. :)
Presently, however, Inge is busy dressing up like a rockstar around the local barrooms of Cape Ann, notably the DOG BAR, where he plays for a mid-sized following of die-hards every Sunday night, pushing his new album “10 True Things & A Filthy Dirty Lie.”
Inge is generally available for any gig you throw at him, however. One of the things he’s gotten extremely good at over the years is pretending to be a “JIMMY BUFFETT” type entertainer. Inge will show up at rich people’s events – weddings, garden parties, barbecues, graduations – with a big smile on his face and play a whole slew of “popular favorites” - and entertain the crowd. The rich people are happy because they get to show their friends that they can afford a talented DANCING MONKEY, and Inge is happy because he made a few C-NOTES.
The ZEROSUM - Press Release
NEW DIRECTION FOR VETERAN LOCAL SONGSMITH
Inge Berge stares abyss in face; releases nihilist opus The Zerosum
Gloucester, Massachusetts, March 24, 2007
What if it all adds up to nothing? What if it really matters zilch what we do or how we do it, or when, or with whom? What if my very being is irrelevant? Questions of this ilk have been begged by nihilists, heretics and contrarian artistic types since critical thought began. They’re the type of questions whose answers one might hope to mine from the pages of Kierkegaard and Kafka, or from the celluloid images of, say, Bergman and Buñuel. With his new CD release The Zerosum, Cape Ann artist Inge Berge seeks to toss his own musical cosmology into the fray – for perchance a fleeting glance into whether the grand total might add up to something other than the looming cipher.
The Zerosum is Mr. Berge’s first release since his collection of mostly acoustic cover-songs two years ago, and marks a distinct departure from his earlier style. While still retaining hummable melodies and the occasional catchy pop-refrain, as in tracks like Samsara, Father Want me Come Home and Goodbye America, The Zerosum is very much a journey into more sinister musical and lyrical territory: largely electronic soundscapes and beats overpainted with darkly poetic musings on the nature of existence, and, according to the artist, a “daring rendezvouz with personal demons, up to and including the distinct possibility of my own artistic irrelevancy.” To quote the album’s liner notes: “[The Zerosum] attempts to evoke a kind of spiritual search which can result only in nihilsm and despair, but fails to accomplish this. If reaching the ‘zenith of mediocrity’ is a valid non-claim to non-fame, let it be known that the author of this work understands he has fallen short in this endeavour as well.”
In previous years, Mr. Berge has been a minor staple on the North Shore music scene, playing his own songs and others’ in just about every setting possible, entertaining audiences in bars, coffeehouses, churches, barns and concert venues. He has also been active away from home - mostly on the Broadway-scene, having lent his guitar work to internationally touring productions ranging from Footloose to The Full Monty. His latest work in this arena was as lead guitarist for The Who’s Tommy, which played last spring to enthusiastic audiences in Tokyo, Japan. All this has led to very little.
Currently, Inge can be seen every Monday night at the Rhumbline in Gloucester, fronting the local “jam” night – where great musicians from every corner of the rock oeuvre are invited to – and do – play. The night has become a local institution, having persisted since the days of Allen Estes, through the decade-long reign of hometown rock luminary Dan King, continuing nowadays with Inge and his band at the helm.
The Zerosum is available in local music stores, as well as via cdbaby.com and iTunes. Potential customers should be advised that the work contains blasphemy, full frontal nudity and satanic imagery and should not be purchased by anyone, let alone listeners under the age of eighteen.
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