August 24 , 2004 - The Pines Theatre - Northampton, MA - TRANSPERFORMANCE 2004 performing as The Monkees
Henning says: As I was running off of the stage to the sound of applause, I encountered a smiling Jose Ayerve, who yelled at me to get back out there! I turned and saw Brian and Max and Tony still circling around on stage and I realized that I had about one second to decide whether to go back out there once more or not. It was slapstick, I decided, and shut my eyes and did a goofy exaggerated sitcom dash across the stage. I heard clapping and yelling, but I saw nothing except an older gentleman standing in the grass near the back of the stage. I had a flashback of a school play in which I was Joe Harper, friend of Tom Sawyer. One of my scenes involved me walking across the stage while pretending that I was on a train. It wasn't a good memory. It was the kind of memory that can instantly fill you with the panic of the awkwardness of adolescence. It was the kind of memory that can shut you down, that can flatten your self-confidence. But, I fought it back and just kept on running. Run, Forrest, run! I kept running until I was out of sight. On the grassy edge of the stage, I stood for a moment looking back across to all my peers on the other side of the stage. Some of them were getting ready to perform, some were helping out on stage, some were helping themselves to the catered food, some were just hanging around tuning guitars or talking. I peaked out at the crowd, specks of colors splattered on a grass green canvas beneath an unbelievably blue summer sky. Children were running around everywhere, people were lying on blankets, sitting in lawn chairs, standing on the fringes while eating snacks and sipping wine, flipping through the program. I only stood there for a moment but I took the time to replay the blur of what had just happened... Ten minutes before the Fawns were scheduled to go on, there was still no sign of Max. Lesa was in her wig, Jose was getting her guitar ready, I was leaning on a tree trying to mentally will Lo Fine to extend their T Rex set. The stage manager called me over, I explained that a member of the next three acts was not there yet, she started to make plans to stretch time. I turned around and there was Max. Yee! (ps. get a cell phone.) The Fawns took the stage as Sheryl Crow and we broke into song. I was reminded instantly about how strange the sound is on these big outdoor stages. Everything becomes a blur to me, I can't hear notes, the pitches seem to meander all around. Brian's drums are so tiny and far away. I can see Max plucking the strings but I hear no bass, just a low wall of rumble. I concentrate on my fingers instead of my ears. We start up "My Favorite Mistake" and I notice that my slap-back delay is set to be too extreme, but there's nothing I can do about it. Not a big deal, just keep watching your fingers. But, remember to look up and enjoy the scenery. During the chorus of "Soak Up The Sun" I do exactly that. The time passes as quickly as it took to read those two paragraphs. Before I know it we were leaving the stage. I dash to the "changing room" (really it's just a tarp suspended from some trees), and Brian and I switch into our Monkees attire. When I reappear, I know that it looks good because everyone is laughing and pointing. We take stage and Brian hits the nostalgia inducing floor tom introduction to the Monkees Theme...and we are off, tearing through a 13 song medley in under fifteen minutes. People jump up and start to dance in the audience and since this is the first year when I have actually been able to see anything, I start picking out familiar faces in the crowd. There's Philip singing harmonies and gaping in surprise when Max starts to sing lead on a song. There's Zeke at the edge of the theater smiling at our inclusion of two songs from Head. The list goes on. During the verse of Circle Sky where I am singing at pretty much full volume, I suddenly become aware of how comfortable I feel. Totally confident standing there in front of what? 800? 1,000? 2,000? people. I know that I don't sing that well, the notes waver some, the timbre is thin, but I am completely at ease. I'm standing tall because it is all clicking just right, the audience is 100% with us, rooting FOR us. It's a rare moment, one that I encounter infrequently, but it's the best moment. All this runs through my head as I'm standing there on the opposite side of the stage after my slap-stick Monkees mad dash. Transperformance. Soon, I change out of my Nesmith clothes and back into my civilian outfit. All worries are over, I've done my part, I can now sit on a blanket and enjoy the rest of the show. And what a show! Great, great performances with stand-outs like King Radio (despite their way, way too long set-up time which always makes me so tense) as the Bee Gees, Spanish for Hitchhiking as Echo and the Bunnymen, Winterpills as Cat Stevens (a wonderful version of Moon Shadow), Spouse as Los Lobos, Ware River Club as Grant Lee Buffalo, and I only saw the first song by Fancy Trash as Buffalo Springfield but they sounded perfect. I'm forgetting some I know. It was an excellent event all around. Thank you to The Northampton Arts Council, Bob Cilman, Dan Richardson, Bruce Tull, and all others involved, especially all the people that came out to enjoy it. I'll have pictures up soon when our gig diary is complete. ant wes says: Here is the song list for our medley and the composers of the tunes in parentheses, then the SFTD guy who sang lead in italics: --Monkees Theme (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart), sung by all --Last Train To Clarksville (Boyce/Hart), Brian --I'm A Believer (Neil Diamond), Tony --For Pete's Sake (Peter Tork/Joseph Richards) (used as the outro theme music to the TV show in the second season), Brian, Henning & Tony --Randy Scouse Git (Micky Dolenz), Brian --Daydream Believer (John Stewart), Max --Zilch (Dolenz/Jones/Nesmith/Tork), Ken, Tony & Brian --Pleasant Valley Sunday (Carole King/Gerry Goffin), Brian --Porpoise Song (Gofin/King), Brian & Henning --What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round? (Travis Lewis/Boomer Clark), Henning --Circle Sky (Michael Nesmith), Henning --Listen To The Band (Nesmith), Tony --I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone (Boyce /Hart), Brian I've only been to two Transperformances these last two years but already it feels like it will be a given annual summer highlight each year. It's so many things in one: concert, festival, fundraiser, sometimes it even has touches of a drag show. To a band like ours, it allows/forces us to do things we normally wouldn't (or wouldn't be able to) do. We get to play outdoors, we play during the middle of the day, we get to play to all ages; we're also obliged to try to faithfully capture the essence of a famous performing act that everyone in the band admires if not passionately adores. And there's a lot of work that goes into that 15-minute set. Especially this year. So if you're interested (and since I imagine my bandmates will faithfully render the actual day's experience), I'll write a bit about what went into the preparation for our set. We wanted to be The Monkees as soon as we found out it would fit the theme. You see, Brian, Ken, and I are all huge Monkees fans. We have all the albums, have seen all the TV episodes (even their underground cult movie) (even the thoroughly painful, unwatchable '68 TV special); in fact, the three of us, along with King Radio's Frank Padellaro once actually started a Monkees cover band that lasted only one rehearsal before my decision to move to New Hampshire derailed the effort in late '98. Anyway, SFTD decided upon some criteria that had to be met to make this venture successful in each of our thirteen eyes before rehearsing a note. First off, Henning suggested we do a medley of songs, rather than the standard three separate tunes that Transperformers usually do. And it was perfect in this case for several reasons: 1.) Each one of us would get to see a piece of a favorite song included e.g. Brian craved "Randy Scouse Git," Henning angled for "Circle Sky," I insisted upon "Pleasant Valley Sunday," etc. 2.) The audience gets to hear the hits as well as some obscure faves. We couldn't not do "I'm A Believer," for instance- it was their biggest hit and the crowd would instantly recognize and appreciate it but we only had to give it a verse and chorus rather than have it usurp 1/3 of our set, like, say, "Free Fallin'" did last year when we Transperformed Tom Petty (opinion be surrendered- that is one incredibly dull song to perform and/or listen to but it's Petty's biggest hit). And even though we crammed in 13 songs, which ran the gamut of Monkee career (and was for the most part chronological), we could easily have done 25 tunes and still not covered the scope of all the good tunes in their underappreciated catalog, not to mention we passed on several other bonafide hits that just didn't fit the medley, such as "Mary, Mary," "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," "Shades Of Gray," ""Words," "Tapioca Tundra," "Valleri," "The Girl I Knew Somehwere," or even, ahem, "That Was Then, This Is Now." And finally 3.) By playing a medley, the beat would be for the most part non-stop for all the dancers in the audience. As important as it was to faithfully reproduce a smattering of hits (it kinda turned out like a "Stars on 45" medley, now that I think of it), we had to nail the unmistakeable image of The Monkees and also incorporate at least a dash of their visual antics to really do it justice. Ken, who was essential to the band in playing the piano parts and hitting the incredibly high background vocal harmonies, played the role of Chip Douglas, if you will. Chip was like the 5th Monkee for a while, producing a few of their albums (inlcuding the one where they played all the instruments themselves) and writing songs for or with them. That left Brian, Max, Henning and I to each take on a face of one of the recognizable Monkees. And the pieces fit together rather well. Brian and Micky Dolenz are both curly-black-haired drummers who sing. Like Mike, Henning towers over his bandmates. Like Mike, Henning plays guitar. A wide tie and a green knitted wool hat (generously knitted by our friend Kelsey) perched atop a black-hair-and-sideburns wig and there was our Nesmith. As for me, I share the blonde hair and general height and build of Peter Tork. He and I possess different eye colors but no one should really notice that from out in a crowd. All I really needed to do was grow my hair longer, bowl-cut it somewhat and accumulate some massive chops over the summer, then slap on some hippie garb in the way of a Nehru-collared shirt, love beads, etc. Max's Davy Jones was a bit more of a stretch- Max and Davy's physical resemblance extends really only to both having thick eyebrows, although both are good-looking chaps and both like to dance. However, for the band, we needed Max to play bass (which Davy played onstage for only a song or two- certainly most folks picture him shaking maracas on the TV show) but we also had to cover Davy's "Daydream Believer," another massive hit for the band and a tune that would be a showpiece in the middle of the medley. Max, however, has never, in 15 or so years as a professional musician, ever sung lead vocals. But now he was called upon to sing this famous song in front of hundreds of people without an instrument to cling to. The boy was a trooper, though- he plowed through the self-consciousness and even incorporated, along with some Davy Jonesy dancing, some improvised Monkee-esque hijinks during the chorus. Yee. And it was all over in a blur. Literally, for me, as I ditched my glasses on the drum riser before assuming the Tork role. Which meant I missed entirely the scene (related to me later) of my daughter running up to the stage and pointing at me, saying "There's my Daddy!" And which also meant the running around the stage after we finished playing held a note or two of sheer panic that I might knock over some amp or trip on a patchcord in my nearsighted haze. And which also meant I didn't actually see any of Max's dancing or antics in "Daydream Believer"- Henning maybe has a video of it- he hasn't said yet so there still is hope. Okay, all I've talked about here is our own set. There was so much more that went on that day. Not only some stellar performances- I'll admit that highlights for me included Spouse's Los Lobos (props to Jose and Ken for holding their guitars in that high-set, close-to-the-body way that Hidalgo and Rosas do) and Fancy Trash's Buffalo Springfield (Dave's voice can remarkably, with just a twist, sound utterly a carbon copy of Neil Young's). But there were also lots of personal moments that were unexpected. I got to catch up with an old friend I played with in a band called The Generics back in high school who I haven't seen in 4 years who just happened to be visiting up here from Texas (and who also will be teaching high school English soon, albeit in Austin) as well as chatting with two former Motherwear co-workers who each have daughters Hannah's age. Then there was noticing my father stare off into the distance when King Radio struck up "Massachusetts," one of my Dad's favorite tunes, as it used to make him think of home when he heard it on the radio during his stint in the service in Southeast Asia in the late 60s. And then there were all these fluttery shivers inside myself while watching "Us," the band of eight-to-eleven year-old boys who played The Beatles. A window into my own past. I played in my first band during that age. It was called "The Arrows" (and then later "The Scenario," which I thought sounded so psychedelic) and we played a few songs I'd written back then* but mostly many, many Beatles songs, though nowhere near as well as those boys did. In fact, none of The Arrows, including myself, were brave enough to sing even in front of his own bandmates, so all the songs were played as instrumentals (even though I wrote lyrics, I couldn't or wouldn't sing 'em), let alone in front of hundreds of folks. *I was so into The Beatles then that even though I wrote my own songs, I tried to write them like Beatles songs. I don't mean like The Rutles would necessarily, but for instance, when I read that John Lennon wrote the lyrics to "Mr. Kite" by taking the words from a circus poster and arranging them into poetry, I looked to a hotel sign on Boston Road in Springfield and did the same- "Air conditioning, pool, color TV/ Cocktail lounge and HBO free... I also "meditated" for inspiration, which meant climbing a tree in my backyard and hanging upside down for five minutes. And I took sheets of LSD and told my parents I was bigger than Jesus. Anyway, after all was Trans-said and Trans-done (and it certainly was wacky seeing Hannah's classmate's Mom onstage dancing with wild abandon to the final song of the evening), a few of us met up at Fitzwilly's for a late dinner to see off Ken, who has since moved to Seattle to play with Pedro The Lion full-time. And what did we do for most of the meal? Talk about ideas for next years' Transperformance! Ai-yi-yi! Brian says: Though I'm not in the best state, mental or physical, to write a good account of Transperformance ( having just completed a 9 hour drive from Charlottesville after bidding adieu to Andrea for the semester), I'll write something, so as not to be left out of something I worked so hard at. Worked? Nah. Playing drums and singing and wearing different outfits, even if under severe time constraints, is nothing near work. I brought enough clothes to have 5 different combos--for the 5 bands I was playing in: There were the givens: SFTD as The Monkees (and my only comment will be that we put on a better Monkees show than the Monkees since '68) Lo Fine as T-Rex (and everyone seemed to love the fact that a band known for its low volume, introspective original material was up there playing glam rock, looking the part, having way too much fun and doing a pretty great job of it all) The Fawns as Sheryl Crowe (for this, I just tried to look like generic 90's session guy. Someone said if that's really what I was going for, I shoulda shaved my head. Playing these "greatest hits of Chili's and Stop and Shop" songs was a total blast. They're great songs in today's crap top 40 climate) the surprises: I got to play drums for Claudia Malibu, who've always been one of my local faves. They were The Animals. Luke does a great Eric Burden growl type thing, which was pretty surprising. Also, it was a blast to to a seat-of-the-pants psychedelic noise jam freakout in "Sky Pilot". And Jose, one of the most inclusive guys around, asked me to play sax for his Spouse as Los Lobos set. Dave Trenholm and I did sax on "This Time" and I did bongos on "La Bamba" and tamborine on another. Don Macauley and I were the percussion section. In the midst of all this, I went out to Andrea's mom's van and met "Jack" (real name TBA), a cartoon of a kitten (8 months) with out of proportion extra long tale, huge front paws and really sad big, big eyes. It might be in the midst of a growth spurt. It went back to VA w/ Andrea, and without any drugs, slept 7/9 of the trip. It was a chaotic day, and the only other band I can really comment on is Spanish for Hitchhiking who did a great Echo and the Bunnymen. Dennis got the Ian the Melodramatic vocals just right. And though "The Killing Moon" is the soundtrack to goth kids making out in parking lots (that, "How Soon is Now" and "Fascination Street" make up a magical trilogy for me in my imagined, idealized teen visions), I was doing nothing of the sort. After all was said and done, some of us met at Fitzwilly's for a farewell to Ken meal. It was casual, not too sentimental. We know as long as we all keep playing, we'll cross paths again. But wow, everyone who got to be in a creative, musical environment with that guy instantly comes away with way higher standards. That's a compliment. God, am I loopy. I gotta go. Put the damn diary up, Ning. Max says: At Transperformance last year I remember a little light bulb in the shape of a sheep forming over Ken's head. He exclaimed, "animals!", and we all looked at him funny. Kind of a departure from the standard genre that Transperformance likes to stick to, this year's theme of Animals (and Insects), which Ken picked, allowed bands to perform from more genres and styles than in any other year that I can remember. Kudos to Bob Cillman and co. for accepting such a wide variety of acts, from '90s hits (Sheryl Crow, the Toadies, and to a certain extent, Los Lobos, though they almost could fall into any category); classic pop/rock heavies (Bee Gees, Eagles, Beatles, Monkees, Bufalo Springfield, Crazy Horse); moderately-obscure '80s hits (Echo & The Bunnymen); relatively-obscure folk-pop (the Roches) and fairly-obscure indiepop from the '90s (Grant Lee Buffalo). Of course, if you live here in the Valley, you are likely to be familiar with much of the material presented. See, we're smarter here. Ken was smart to choose a band which we could portray to perfection, then find a genre that fit it. Almost everyone in SFTD began to formulate their own perfect Monkees' 15 minute set a year ago. Mix cds were exchanged, concept sets discussed on long car rides, gig attaire was tried on, all months in advance. Keep in mind that the majority of groups who participate in Transperformance usually start rehearsing the weekend before the show. We're smart local musicians, but we're also slackers. The rest of the band was patient with me as I brushed up on Monkees 101. I didn't grow up watching them on tv, listening to their 45s or carrying their lunch box to school. Of the songs we played, I had heard less than half. Brian encouraged me to take the lead on "Pleasant Valley Sunday", since he knew I wouldn't mind goofing it up. I think that took a leap of faith for the rest of the band, since I wasn't a fan of the Monkees and I have never sung lead like that. I practiced in the car twice a day. I will never get those freakin' lyrics out of my head. Transperformance this year was a tidal wave of emotions for me. I didn't want it to end, which is always a funny thing to think when you realize that we are essentially transforming into a glorified cover band for a night. But Henning's right, we never get that kind of mass reaction when we're playing originals, yet we crave it. I stood on stage thinking everything will be different next year. I said goodbye to Ken at the end of the night and wondered when I would see him again. Ken the smart animal, Ken. Brian Says: it was "Daydream Believer" that Max sang at Transperformance, not "Pleasant Valley Sunday". Max says: Right, Brian, I sang Daydream Believer, Not Pleasant Valley Sunday. I told you I wasn't a fan of the Turtles.	--Monkees Theme --Last Train To Clarksville --I'm A Believer --For Pete's Sake --Randy Scouse Git --Daydream Believer --Zilch --Pleasant Valley Sunday --Porpoise Song --What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round? --Circle SkyHenning --Listen To The Band --I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone photo by: christopher evans photo by: jose ayerve photo by: jose ayerve photo by: jose ayerve