PITTSFIELD — Whatever you do, don't tell performer Storm Large how to do things. Large worked for years not to find her musical self. Instead, she made opportunities for that musical self to be at the forefront of her performances. When she takes the stage at the Colonial Theatre on Saturday, the audience will see the result of Large's good instincts.
Large, a native of Southborough, had several music projects in her younger years in San Francisco, and her struggle then was defining herself in the band setting. The impulses that currently define her successful cabaret-style career were on display back then, but with the disapproval of her collaborators and at odds with their goals in music. Large just wanted to be herself.
"I always had a non-rock and roll voice," she said. "I always told stories too. My old band back in the day would roll their eyes and hit their instruments and say come on, get to the song. But I would tell jokes and it would work out and it was funny and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed relating to the audience. And it was part of the show."
Poised for success with a record deal, that all fell apart after 9-11 and Large left music, intending it to be permanent. She ended up in Portland, Or., with a plan to attend the culinary institute and become a nutritionist. She bartended to make ends meet. Her boss often begged her to perform there but Large shrugged it off, tired of having her heart broken by the music industry, tired of being told what she should be doing by the people in it.
"When I first started singing in bands, I took myself very seriously because everybody else said I should," Large said. "You need to be famous. You need to be on the radio. You need to get signed and a record deal. You need to write hit songs. You need to write songs that sound like this. You need to lose weight. You need to change your name. You need to lie about your age. I tried. I didn't take everybody's advice, but it was endless, people telling me what I needed to do."
When a regular band canceled at the last minute, Large agreed to fill in, and quickly put together what she calls a "joke jazz band" that did jazz-style covers of rock and punk songs. It was a big hit and Large, who had promised herself she would never do music again unless it was actually fun with nice people, loved doing it. That band became known as The Balls.
Large's career took another strange twist after that, when she ended up on the reality TV show Rock Star: Supernova, which she describes as a "crash course in professionalism." It also offered some cautionary lessons in show business.
"I didn't even start singing in bands to become a household name," said Large. "I was a household name for a minute when I was on TV, and I don't recommend it. It's an uncomfortable feeling when you're that famous, and I was only that famous for a handful of months. It was weird, really weird."
The final piece in Large's professional puzzle came when the band Pink Martini asked her to sub for their singer when she was sidelined by vocal cord surgery. Large went on tour with the band and stayed on for their next recording, and still occasionally collaborates with them.
"That was a really good education in music, in international music, jazz musicianship, being in a band," she said. "When I'm in my band it's sort of a one-woman show with an awesome band backing me up, Pink Martini is all soloists, so I'm more of a collaborator, I'm a back-up singer, I play percussion. I'm the lead singer when I'm with them, but it's not like it's my band. It's all very teamwork oriented."
Now, Large tours with her own band, Le Bonheur, with musical director James Beaton from her old days in The Balls. This project mixes original material with eclectic covers, and embraces a theatrical and cabaret context for her performances that lets Large's big personality show itself without shame.
"The storytelling and the comedy and the looseness and the zero fourth wall — the audience is absolutely invited to participate, singing along and engaging and talking and telling stories or whatever — it's like a great hang with a house band," said Large. "I love that, because my motivation to be a musician was mostly out of loneliness. I get to entertain people, they're happy to see me, I make them laugh. We get to drink alcohol and laugh and talk about life. And I scream and yell and wear tight dresses. It's a pretty awesome life. It's exhausting. I'm on the road 260 days a year, but I'm pretty much unhireable at this point in any other occupation, so it worked out."
And unlike the harangue of band members and label execs trying to micro-manage her career, it's allowed Large to engineer the kinds of challenges that keep her alive and creative, and always diving into new territory with a gusto that comes naturally to her.
"Artistically I like to try things that I think I'll suck at, that will f--k me up and make me have to think creatively," Large said. "Thinking creatively really happens only when you're in an uncomfortable situation. Not that you have to suffer to create, I don't totally buy that, but when you're in an unfamiliar situation, unfamiliar to the point where you're a little uncomfortable and you don't know where you fit, that's when you have to think creatively. I like engaging in those kinds of things."