The long story behind ~ A tale of a Mariner's unorthodoxy.

Format of the show

Take heed that our show is not the cliche, tongue in cheek parody of "Treasure Island" that "Pirates of the Caribbean" is.  Don't get us wrong... we do dearly love the adventures of Capt. Jack Sparrow, Capt Barbosa & the rest of the insanely talented and entertaining cast.  But we're telling a side of the tale that few have ever given an ear to.  If you've ever watched "anybody's adaptation" of Moby Dick on film, and then went back & read the book by Herman Melville, you'd find the books to be far more practical, believable, and more deeply personal than the motion picture industry's version. Film directors have an innate compulsion to swing you emotionally every few seconds, when in reality the cycles between dramatic events are anything but steady or predictable.  In our story, death has long lasting & wide reaching consequences, love changes as time passes, and some wounds really never heal.  More often than not, the good don't come out on top of the heap, and just deserves are a pipe dream for the down trodden.  Life aboard ship is very different.  Situations occur aboard ship that would not ordinarily occur out in civilization.  And a crewman must learn tolerance, patience & understanding amid a melting pot of fellow crewmates, lest they go mad.  We are not pirates ourselves, but instead "salvage experts seeking a quick profit from the aftermath of a failed piratical campaign".  Some would argue that this walks the fence of moral & ethical virtue, but there is no law on the high sees.  No judge & jury or any consequence, save that of Davey Jones locker.  It's nothing personal, but it is our business.

All our musical sets will be prefaced with a brief Shakespearian theatre performance, setting the tone for the music that follows.  We're simple "minstrels" in the old classical sense, who believe the role of note & verse is to tell a story.  Make you a crewman aboard the Pearl Necklace & relive the joy, the love, the horror, terror & excitement we felt.  It's quite unlike anything else.

This excerpt marks the beginning of a letter from the late "James Levesque" to his family back in Dijon, France.  Shortly before his death.

Oh, but have oceans of time passed since those early days of peril.  And now nearly all that remains of the memories are the old, shrunken scars I carry with me to this day.  Once in a while…  perhaps as long as a generation, an old acquaintance will cross paths with me & open the doorway to that long lost recollection I’ve journeyed so far to forget.  But I am old now, much the wiser, and no longer of a mind to follow the whims of youth’s dreams.  I was lucky to have survived them then as it was.  Such an irony that the joyous days of yesteryear leave no mark or evidence of their passing.  But the dark days, they leave so deep an aching wound that they forever become a part of you.  An ever present reminder of where, what & who you shouldn’t have been.  So here we are, at the last long voyage of life, and no better time to tell the tales of those younger days.  For the better, for worse, and for the sheer legend of it, while I still have my wits about me.  May the gods forgive me & the lady of the sea forget me not.     ~ Your Royal Majesty, lord James Levesque - The Marquis de Ceas'd.

The Setting.

The story begins in the Norman region of France, far removed from the cold, tumultuous waters of the channel.  Europeans had already begun immigration to the New World of the Americas, but little was made public of what they found.   The seas were ever the source of conflict as pirates were pillaging merchant ships of all nationalities.  And many countries had sanctioned their own legalized Privateers to steal goods from their competitors.  England & Spain led in the conflict, with France trying their best to catch up.

With whom does our story begin?

Our tale begins with the illegitimate child of one Monsieur Poulet.  Monsieur was once a prominent member of the French military, turned royalty at the conclusion of his service.  His son's coming to the estate was not a welcome one & events would transpire that had the boy exiled in most controversial fashion.  This troublesome extension of the family was Monsieur James Levesque, who's ill fated path in life would later have him dubbed the Marquis de Ceas'd.  The lord of a barren, inhospitable, and unpopulated region of Quebec.  The same that Jacques Cartier once proclaimed at first sight "My Lord, but this must be the land God gave to Cain."  He was essentially a lord in title only & devoid of any subjects.  But it had been said, his coming was like the pebble that starts an avalanche down a great mountainside & changed the surrounding landscape forever.  He was but a small member of a much greater host you'll come to know soon enough. 

When the time is proper, you'll have the full account of Lord James Levesque's adventures, his dastardly deeds & the lifetime of suffering thereafter on the road to perdition.  And then perhaps you'll comprehend the spirit that drives the Pearl Necklace onward.  Her crew can ever always be described with one word... Debaucherous!

Where did the idea for this show come from.

Many, many years ago... (circa 2003) I had a brainstorm of an idea.  I wanted to create a Public Access television show similar in nature to "Wayne's World", but with a Renaissance era mariner's theme.  It was going to be called "Necrovision TV" and would have a house band much like the Tonight Show with David Letterman.  It was a comedy show with a mixture of styles akin to Benny Hill, Mel Brooks, and Monty Python.  But the more I looked into the cost of doing a television production, the more I realized this was out of my league budget wise.  So I abandoned the show & focused all my efforts on the musical group, with strong interest in keeping it as theatrical production based as I could.

The early 2000's was a weird time in the music business.  Content sharing sites like "Napster" were just about to change the landscape of all forms of entertainment forever.   The big music labels were helpless at stemming the tide of illegal downloads.  And what survived bears little resemblance to their former glory.   The country still wasn't over the shock of the Sept 11 terrorist attack on the World Trace Center.  America all walked around with a generalized sense of anxiety & depression.  Building up to that same era in history, my own personal life was on a downward spiral.  I'd spent years as a high functioning alcoholic, and was later seduced into the world of illicit drug abuse.  It started off harmless enough with whippits, Ketamin, Mary Jane & then later a hit of LSD at a college party.  Typical experimentation that college students do, really.  But once I graduated to the nose candy (go-dust, great white buffalo, or simply "blow") , it all stumbled downhill on the express train to hell.  I don't think it unreasonable to state I may well have outdone Ozzy when it comes to lifetime quantity consumed.  But just like a lot of other people's sob stories, I figured out where I was headed a day late & dollar short, ended up going through a bloody divorce & a devastating bankruptcy a year later.  I lost some of my best friends, the respect of family & most importantly I threw myself into a self-imposed assylum of masochism & self-loathing.  It was during & in the aftermath of all that chaos that "Necrovision" wrote its best, most controversial content.  But behaviorally, psychologically & emotionally I was still a wreck.  I had to gut out a very long term commitment, attending outpatient therapy with a psychologist to un-do all the "broken-ness" of my early adulthood.  And when I came out of it years later, I didn't connect with the dysfunction of the music anymore.  In the early life of the show I was sometimes a dick to my band mates.  They'd show up to my place to practice & I'd have to cancel on them so I could go make a dope run & fend off the cravings.  So things were very on & off with practices, recording & live performances.  When it was good at Necrovision, it was damn good & we immortalized those flashes of lighting as it happened.  But ultimately I had to put my sobriety & mental health first.  None of my fellow band mates had ever done anything remotely connected to drug use, so they didn't understand me & I'm still sorry I put them through it.  I believe they only hung on as long as they did because they shared my vision for the show, enjoyed playing parts far-removed from the somewhat unremarkable personalities we have, and the music is unlike anything written before.

The old guard known as "Necrovision" ( Circa 2003 - 2011)

As "Necrovisoin": We played nearly all our shows at humbly advertised "Locals Only ~ Music & Art bar" on N. Keystone Ave in Indianapolis, IN. This picture was taken just after our first live performance.  But sadly, we only played there two more times before the cigarette ban in all public venues drove the club out of business.  Much like most of Indy's other popular night clubs did post-ban.  In our hey-day, the members in the photo going left to right were: Rocky Griffith (aka: the Dread Pirate de Schlong), John Dashiel (Sven Thogrin ~ the Butcher), Mike Gallagher (Galchobhair Urquhart ~ the Mad Scot), and yours truly... the Marquis de Ceas'd.  (Click the thumbnail to see full size).  Photo taken Nov 7th, 2007.

Necrovision in May of 2009 ~ during our music video production.

Legacy pictures of the band back during the Necrovision days.

Resurrection of the show, but with new life.

In March of 2014 I began planning the resurrection of "Necrovision's" best musical content, but wanted to re-brand the show with something less gothic sounding & more indicative of the libidinous, party animal, bohemian culture the production has always had.  And that's how we ended up becoming Debaucherous."When I was writing much of the back-story for Necrovision in 2003 I did so in a short novel format, using that name as the title.  Not knowing that some day we'd have to re-brand.  So picking out a new name was easy.   Later that year I side tracked myself by joining my brother's cover band "All or Nothing" from Bedford, IN and toured short haul engagements in Louisville, Ky, and every city in southern IN with more than 50K people in it.  I'm sure other working musicians won't fault me for doing the cover thing for awhile.  Running an all original band is expensive & I sadly needed some hardware upgrades.  I left "All or Nothing" in April of 2019, vowing to make good on my promise to bring my show back.  I had already purchased the props to turn my stage lighting into sloop rigged sails, bought more Par64 cans for the trusses & even purchased a new stage snake.  But right about the time I was ready to pull the trigger on playing "open stages" or hiring new crew, the Corona-Virus stepped in & trashed that agenda in monumentally devastating fashion.  We've been on furlough up to now, waiting to see what the live music market would look like from here on.  Its coming back, but as a mass maelstrom of chaos.  A veritable glut of garage bands vying for the attention of big media.  That's not quite what I have in mind. Today the only members of Debaucherous are those you see below.  The rest of the crew's roster is being auditioned.  (See our employment tab for details).

The cast & crew known as "Debaucherous".

	His lordship, James Levesque. The Marquis de Ceas'd. Was the illegitimate son of a French nobleman & exiled from his home country under suspicious circumstances. As severance pay for his expulsion, he was given a small merchant ship named "The Pearl Necklace" & the title of Marquis over a region in Quebec, Canada that had no citizens in its kingdom. He was lord of nothing, save for the title. Aside of his courtly duties, he's a guitarist, bassist, percussionist, vocalist, song writer & composer for the show. At live engagements he predominantly focuses on guitars & vocals. As a disenchanted royal, he greatly despises the double standards afforded the wealthy & entitled, but recognizes his power to change it is insignificant. He makes a difference where he can, but is more concerned with his own absolution as a rule. His youth was much mis-spent with less than honorable deeds following his name. But time & wisdom is a stern teacher. Stoic, calculated & an unshakable creature of habit & protocol. Described as a smoothly flowing river that hides a rocky undercurrent.
	Our Commander in Chief & ship's Captain.  Madame Farias.  Lady Farias was once the daughter of an Italian shipwright who was commissioned by the King of France to construct many vessels of the line.  But the local Baron who oversaw the monarchy's shipbuilding operations passed away suddenly, leaving his next of kin in charge.  The new Baron proved to be an over-priveleged, pretentious, condescending & sadistic prick who fired her father, had him thrown in prison & cast her out in the street.  Fate would have it that she'd become Marseille's most successful madame & ran a brothel of legendary status.  That is until she was convinced by the Marquis to change professions to ship's Captain.  Lady Farias is our main story teller & vocalist.  In the show she's a woman of many talents, including Saleswoman, negotiator, disciplinarian, entertainment director, accounts receivable & collections, and has the ability to slip out of the most precarious situations.  Amiable until you cross her.  But as a rule a very charismatic, classy & cultured traveler who's wit surpasses those who would call themselves her betters.
	The ship's after hours Entertainment.  Betha. (Hiring for).  When Captain Farias came to the Necklace, she brought along her most trusted & attractive escort.  Like Lady Farias, her father was a shipwright who was dismissed by local royalty, ostracized publicly, and thrown in debtor's prison for a disproportionate amount of time.  Betha is an expert prostitute, but unknown to most, an accomplished navigator, shipwright, an aspiring medic, canonier, culinary artist, and dancer.  She plays the helpless & fragile lady to the T, but you'd be wise to know better.  She's our backing (and sometimes lead) vocalist, bass guitarist, and percussionist.  She's of Irish descent which explains her stalwart temperament, unfathomably deep love of those close to her, and utter lack of discrimination towards those of different persuation than her own.  Very crafty like her boss, but subject to emotional distraction & impulsivity when boredom & routine starve her appetite for life.
	The Blacksmith.  Andreus Hirshmann.  Andreus was born in Wismar Germany & grew up watching his father & uncle hone their craft at wild game hunting (especially deer).  But life in rustic Germany wasn't enough to satisfy his growing curiosity & he wanted more from life.  We surmised that his proximity to the Danish territories bolstered his wanderlust, and fate brought us together at port.  Of all the crew aboard the Necklace, Andreus has always been described as an exceptionally affable, unassuming & a graciously social soul.  Quite the stark contrast to the usual bohemian, mischief making tomfoolery most mariners exude.  Very caring a spirit & nary a stranger does he know.  Definitely one of our favorite crew members.  He's our drummer & primary percussionist.
	The Deep Diver & Boatswain.  Jaques de Conde.  (Hiring for).  Our Boatswain followed the Marquis to freedom when a small pack of juveniles escaped imprisonment at the keep in Dijon & headed for the coast.  Never was a lad so eager to escape the treachery of the clergy there, or the inumerable count of wolves lurking in the woods throughout most of their journey.  This adventurer is a fine guitarist in his own right, plays keyboards, and sings like a bard of the theater house.  His other duties include Salvage expert, dive coordinator, lookout, disaster preparedness & security detail.  He's one of the more charismatic & energetic souls aboard ship & has been with us since the "Necklace" first set sail.  Chief among his other talents is the ability to get other crew members to play la petanque while under way, which ends up being a hilarious exercise in futility.