Transperformance

Writing about Transperformance now, over a week later, with a vacation in between, feels like I'm writing about something from my childhood. The whole day is so rife with chaos, that only little snapshots of memories remain.

Because of the weather, the show had to be moved indoors. This is the first time, I've ever been at a Transperformance that wasn't outside beneath the late summer trees of the Pines Theatre. I missed the setting, but overall it worked out well.

The sound quality was better, I felt, and I really liked having a curtain available for set changes - that was a HUGE bonus.

Lesa and I arrived early before the show started and we walked out on the stage amidst a flutter of confusion, people were running around everywhere. I immediately set about setting up our keyboards and figuring out how everything would work. Luckily, I got that all straightened away, with the help of Ken, before things got even nuttier, because before you knew it, the show was starting.

The concert was held in the Northampton Highschool Auditorium, which, I gotta say, is very nice. Down the hall, there was a large band room for the musicians to get ready in and to dump their gear and stuff. That was very convenient, although it was about 85 degrees and smelly in there. I heard one highschool student, when hearing somebody complaining about, say, "Now you know what we go through everyday all year long."

The auditorium on the other hand, or at least the upper balcony in which I often sat, was just the opposite, freezing by over ambitious air-conditioning. So both places were a relief for about 45 seconds, if you kept running back and forth, which is exactly what I was doing.

I know I'll forget some acts. Some I didn't even get to see, in fact.

The Armenti Family was utterly charming as The Weavers. Dave Weidenfield was a good Suzanne Vega, I enjoyed their song choices, especially, Caramel and Small Blue Thing. Unfortunately, I only got to see Matt Hebert and his all-star band as Bob Dylan from backstage since we were getting ready to go on as Blondie. They sounded perfect and "Like A Rolling Stone" was amazingly motivating. It made me so happy to be there and to be about to go out on that stage.

The curtains closed and we went out to set up for Blondie. It was thrilling to be back there, adreneline was pumping, we were almost ready when we were introduced and the curtain opened. We had a few awkward moments there, in the stark light, while some microphones were set in place. Lesa and I hammed it up in a punky sort of way by doing a little shoving of each other, she snarled her lip in annoyance, just like Debbie Harry might have.

Then we were ready, Lesa (Debbie) said, "OK, you monkeys" and Tony kicked in the first few chords of One Way or Another. From there on out it was smooth sailing. We eased through the set of rock and disco and rap like we had been doing it for months. Even the crazy keyboard drum fill while we switched around musicians worked. Special thanks to Dave Trenholm for playing sax with us. What a guy.

I left the stage when we were finished, feeling really confident and satisfied that we pulled it off. It's always a give and take a Transperformance, there are so many things that can go wrong, but this time I think it all worked out. Yee.

That's where my brain must have gone into overload, because it's all just bits of memories from there on out. Apollo Sunshine did a nice job as Jimi Hendrix, but I still can't figure out what he has to do with NYC. The Winterpills, Yo La Gerschwinn was inspired and beautiful. Drunk Stuntmen, or some of them anyway, nailed Three Dog Night...."Number!". The Ray Mason Band was a great Lovin' Spoonful. Us, the band of micro-kids, were the Ramones and as cute as the dickens and they were joined by the Young at Heart Chorus, who were all about 70 years older than the kids, to sing I Wanna Be Sedated.

The Young At Heart went on to do a nice surreal performance as Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Crazy.

Also crazy, King Radio taking on the challenge of being Steely Dan and pulling it off wonderfully. All the rest of us musicians just sat there shaking our heads in wonderment. I sort of missed their last song, because once again, I was back stage. This time I preparing to play along with Russ as he sang Harry Nilsson singing Without You.

It was just the two of us on the big stage...in fact, it started with just me out there. Good fun. It was Russ' reintroduction to the Valley. The people ate him up. The applause were embarrassing.

I completely missed The Talking Heads, although I saw a bit on the video screens and they looked great, because we went down to get some much needed food. Unfortunately, the musicians food table was pretty much bare by the time we arrived. I bought a hotdog instead. Great.

The only other thing I really remember is the Unband as Kiss. Something went wrong backstage and there was a good 25 to 30 minutes of stalling before they went on. A lot of people left unfortunately, but it had been a long show, so you can't blame them. When the band finally came out, they did Kiss justice. Their costumes were perfect, except that they kept breaking and falling off - but in a way, that was perfect too. Mike Ruffino was the stand-out, blood dripping out of his mouth. Scary and delightful.

When the show was over, I was exhausted. I realized that I had ran back and forth between back room and stage and up the stairs to the balcony for the last 5 hours. Sure enough the next two days on our vacation in Canada, my legs were screaming at me. But, man it was worth it. Hurrah, Transperformance, I can't wait until next year.