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review: When we found out last year that Unrest, Versus, and Eggs were reuniting for the Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary celebration, along with all the other great Teenbeat acts slated to play, we knew we couldn't miss this event!
night 1, the galaxy hut: After arriving at and settling in to our hotel, we set out for the Galaxy Hut. We had seen their food menu on their website and there were lots of yummy looking things, but when we got there all of the 8 or so tables in the tiny, tiny club were occupied, so after standing there awkwardly (and hungrily) for a few moments while the members of Unrest were setting up equipment, we had to go back out and find another place to eat. After dinner we got back to the Galaxy Hut just in time for the "8:30 sharp" start time, in time to see the re-formed Unrest play "Make-Out Club" and "Vibe Out!/Hydrofoil", but we found out later that they had already been playing for about 30 minutes before we got there. Dang it! Oh well, we couldn't have known and we were about to drop from hunger. During their set (and the rest of the show) there were two young kids who looked about 6 years old frolicking about, and we learned later that one of them is the son of Teenbeat mastermind Mark Robinson and label veteran Evelyn Hurley. I'm so far out of the gossip loop, I didn't even know Mark and Evelyn were ever a couple, let alone married with offspring!
The evening's next performer was Bossanova, a solo electro-pop fellow named Chris Storrow. He stood there rather awkwardly by himself, singing along to a backing recording of his music. If I'm remembering correctly, he commented on how he records most of his songs on an organ at his father's house, or something along those lines. The next act was supposed to be Pavlov Gregoravich, purportedly an ex-member of The Ropers (who are much beloved around here), but disappointingly he must not have made it.
Following Bossanova was Larry Crane, representing Vomit Launch. Now I was familiar with Larry as the publisher of Tape Op zine and owner of Jackpot! recording studio, but I had never realized he was in Vomit Launch. Where have I been? Larry told charming stories of Mark's interactions with the band, and he fiddled obsessively with the guitar he borrowed from Mark for the occasion, good-naturedly needling Mark about the condition of his equipment. Larry almost hadn't made it due to plane delays (it turns out that a fellow we met in the audience was on the same plane), and I'm thankful that he did because I definitely got the sense that we were witnessing something truly rare and special.
Next up was Mark Robinson himself. He played one song and that was it for him. He was either taking the old showbiz adage about leaving them wanting more to the extreme, or generously leaving more of the spotlight for the other performers. At first I thought it was the former, but this recent interview leads me to believe that it was the latter. Isn't that nice?
After Mark was Alice Despard, who has no Teenbeat releases but was there by virtue of being the owner of the Galaxy Hut and a friend and supporter of the label and its acts. She played a handful of minor-key singer-songwritery songs which Janice enjoyed more than I did. Her presence really drove home how much of a "family affair" the event was, though.
The next performer was Triple M, a young woman whose relationship with Teenbeat was that she was once their intern. She played an acoustic guitar to the accompaniment of a choppy backing track playing on a laptop. Meanwhile a slideshow projected on a screen next to her, with little mini-narratives written out word by word on each slide in Sharpie, one of which was a lesbian porn story featuring Mary Lou Retton. Triple M and her projectionist made quite a display of themselves while setting up, and the projectionist seemed to be having much more trouble than necessary aiming and stabilizing the projector. Also, for one of the songs, the slide said "music by Triple M," but it was a cover of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle". We were rather put off by that faux pas. Her playing was sloppy as well, but it hardly even matters because she was by far the most annoying act of all 3 nights.
Fortunately there was still one act to go, which was Tracy Shedd, a pop singer-songwriter whose gentle songs and voice were quite nice. Her acoustic set brought the evening's performances to a mellow but satisfying close.
Throughout the evening, between each act, Unrest's Phil Krauth would spin records, mostly unfamiliar obscure soul stuff it seemed, and the volume was a bit too loud. Surprisingly, even though the club was so tiny (maximum occupancy was like 48) and the show was free, it never got overly crowded. It wasn't a secret show by any means, but there was a definite "in the know" kind of atmosphere in which we felt kind of out of place. We spied a few luminaries like Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill), Guy Picciato (Fugazi), and Archie Moore (Velocity Girl, Heartworms), and there were loads of other people who I felt like I should know who they were but don't.
night 2, the black cat: On this, our second day in D.C., the city got hit with a semi-unexpected snowstorm. It snowed steadily all day (while we took a dip in the hotel pool), and by the time we arrived at the Black Cat, there was a couple of inches on the ground. We stood outside in line for about 15 minutes and by the time we got to the door we looked like Frosted Mini-Wheats. When we got into the upstairs stage area (and were handed a copy of the commemorative compilation CD by Mark for being among the first 100 to arrive), we saw a slightly older, mostly-bald fellow on the stage who we figured was most likely a sound guy but I suspected might actually be opening performer Jonny Cohen, and my suspicions proved correct. Jonny sang his offbeat and funny songs accompanied by another fellow on guitar and was thoroughly awkward and charming. At one point he exhorted the crowd to attend a "Save [Star Trek] Enterprise" rally the next day. Jonny, like the rest of the evening's opening acts, was limited to 20 minutes, which kept the show going at a brisk pace and meant that nobody overstayed their welcome.
Jonny was followed by recent Teenbeat signees The Fontaine Toups, featuring of course Ms. Fontaine Toups formerly of Versus. We had actually not heard any of her new band's stuff yet, so I was really anticipating this set. They played a good rocking set and I enjoyed the songs, though I did get the sense that Fontaine is still building her confidence as a frontwoman; I noticed her looking to her bandmates for support fairly often. Either that or she just finds them all very handsome.
Next up was the breezy, jazzy pop of True Love Always. I seem to recall thinking that they did not seem as prepared as they could have been. The highlight of their set was a guest vocal appearance by Evelyn Hurley, who would also show up a couple more times over the course of the event (including, of course, in her own band on the final night). Evelyn swung her arms and clapped her hands jauntily and really brought the audience into the set, particularly when they played a faithful cover of the ultimate roller-skating song, Earth Wind & Fire's "September".
I should mention that each act on this night was introduced by a fellow whose name escapes me but whose shtick was "bad comedian". I know it was supposed to be fake bad, but it was so corny that our eye rolls were for real.
The awesome +/- was next to take the stage. In my ignorance I was surprised to learn that they share a bass player with True Love Always, which is pretty amazing since they're stylistically very different bands. +/- have great intensity and great songs and I love their electro-rock sound. They were a definite highlight of the night.
They were followed by the much-anticipated reunion of Eggs. Eggs' Andrew Beaujon revealed that they already played a warmup show in Brooklyn, so the D.C. audience wasn't actually the first to experience the reunion. Anyway, my memory must be faulty because they were a lot more heavy-rocking than I remembered, though they were as funny and charming as I could have hoped. The highlight of their set for me was hearing them perform "Saturday's Cool", which is my favorite Eggs song and which they said they never performed live when they were originally together.
Finally it was time for the headliners, the reunited Unrest, whom we had gotten a sneak preview of the night before. Mark came out in aviator sunglasses and a shiny track jacket, both of which he shed over the course of their set. His hair is longer than I've ever seen it and has a bit of a jeri-curl look to it. Janice remarked that Bridget Cross actually looks younger now; it must be that clean Alaska air. (We thought we might have traveled the furthest to D.C. for the event but then we were reminded that Bridget came all the way from Alaska.) And Phil hasn't lost his knack for those tricky Unrest rhythms. Bridget and Phil each got their turn at the mic for "Light Command" and "West Coast Love Affair", respectively. The crowd was nuts for the band, dancing and bopping, which is saying something for an East Coast audience. The pinnacle of Unrest fanaticism was a guy who kind of freaked us out by getting up in our grills asking me to take his picture with the band. He was nice about it after the show and apologized for being so intense, though.
After the show we were still feeling pretty energetic, due to still being on West Coast time. The snow had continued to fall and was now 3 inches deep. We were hungry so we got pizza slices that turned out to be 1/4 of a pie each, and we went back to the hotel with big lumps of cheese in our bellies.
night 3, the black cat: After our dinner at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl (mmm, vegetarian chili cheese fries), we headed over to the Black Cat a little earlier than the previous night and met up with some of our internet acquaintances in the downstairs lounge/bar area, where we amused ourselves with some Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man. This worked out much nicer because instead of queueing up outside in the cold (and it had gotten colder), we could queue up inside instead.
Once upstairs, the "performance" by hollAnd was already underway, except what it was was just a projection of hollAnd's short video films on a large screen hung in the center of the club. I found the films a bit dull, with their repetitive slow-motion shots of traffic and whatnot, but they were synched up to the music pretty well at least. The coolest part was a shot of someone (presumably Trevor hollAnd) playing the drums which was "remixed" via digital editing trickery.
Once that was over, we secured our spot up by the stage and soon the first act, Hot Pursuit, began. This is Evelyn Hurley's band with Margaret McCartney (Tuscadero) and they were fun. It's all about Evelyn and her sunny, goofy personality, really.
After them was Aden. I still can't get past the fact that their singer/guitarist Jeff Gramm is the son of conservative Senator Phil Gramm. It's like, he's the Fortunate Son, you know? I do like Aden though, and I enjoyed their set even though they were a bit sloppy. At one point Jeff forgot some lyrics but he went on totally unfazed. He's very comfortable on stage. Their lead guitarist totally looks like a refugee from a jam band.
This night had a new emcee, again keeping in the "bad comedy" vein, but he was less cringe-inducing than the first guy. He was goofily dressed in a hand-painted striped sweatshirt that read "and other hits" (I don't get it) and a sparkly motorcycle helmet with Barbie-doll "antennae" (or antlers). He had a dry delivery in a put-on Brian Doyle Murray kind of rasp.
He brought Flin Flon to the stage, and this was another act that I had really been looking forward to, since apparently they've never toured despite being awesome. To be honest, they weren't quite as tight as I would have hoped, which was a shame since their minimalist sound is really kind of all about being tight. Still, it was great to finally see them. We were right in front of Mark Robinson so we got the full effect of the creepy, creepy faces he makes while he plays. In the incestuous Teenbeat tradition they share a drummer with True Love Always. Either before or after their set the emcee brought out Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, who gave some annoying rant about never being invited to the annual Teenbeat banquet despite Bratmobile's single-song contribution to the label.
The next act was without question the high point of all 3 nights: the reunited (but not fully broken-up) Versus. They did the coolest thing they possibly could have done: they played The Stars Are Insane, their amazing debut full-length and their first Teenbeat release, in its entirety. It was dead perfect and absolutely electrifying, and what makes that even more amazing is that, as we learned later, the only rehearsal they had was their soundcheck earlier that night. Singer/guitarist Richard Baluyut gave total respect to Teenbeat by saying that they had been on other labels but that Teenbeat was always home. It was a completely genuine moment, and the perfect capper for the whole experience.
Unfortunately there was still one band to go and that band was Tuscadero, also re-formed for the night. But first the emcee brought out musical outsider-artist Butch Willis to sing a couple of acapella numbers. Butch is an ornery grey-haired fellow with the shakes, and I'm not really sure what his deal is. Then Tuscadero started and I have to say that for the most part I find them rather loathesome, so it was an anticlimactic finale to the whole thing, though the band seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit, and they had a number of very vocal and enthusiastic fans. The setlist included a cover of J. Geils Band's "Centerfold", if that tells you anything. Partway through their set we abandoned our spot by the stage and went to the back of the club to meet up with some of our acquaintances again (unfortunately, we missed a friend who had come just for Versus and wisely left right after their set).
So, 18 acts over 3 nights, some great sets, some not so great, but with a lot of love and heartfelt appreciation for the many years that Mark Robinson and Teenbeat have devoted to nurturing artists from breezy pop groups to idiosyncratic outsider oddballs. It really did feel like a celebration, and if they do it again for the 25th anniversary, we'll probably be there. (mike 03.05)
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