“You gotta remember, this was before the Internet,” explains Long Island native Rob Lichter when describing his early teen years spent devouring countless articles from cinema magazines concerning Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. “It just had a big impact on me.”
Lichter’s healthy obsession with the film peaked after finally seeing it around his 15th birthday. Years later, that fascination manifested itself into the tongue-in-cheek rock opera album Odyssey! with the aid of such fellow 2001 enthusiasts as King Missile’s John S. Hall and cartoonist James Kochalka. But calling the album a “rock opera” lends the collection an air of dignity it willfully shuns with such whimsically goofy songs titled “I’m the Monolith” and “Super Jupiter.”
“It is a true homage and a labor of love, but a funny homage,” Lichter explains of the project, which took more than a decade to complete. “Just because it’s funny doesn’t mean it’s a novelty or throwaway.” Although Thursday’s lineup lacks Hall and Kochalka, the collective will perform Odyssey! live for the very first time, following the BAMcinematek’s screening of the opera’s namesake. “There may be some little kids’ monkey masks,” Lichter coyly reveals. “I really don’t want to give too much away.”
Dec. 21. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. (betw. Ashland & St. Felix Sts.), B’klyn, 718-777-3456; 7, $10.
