Friday, May 23, 2014

Show Hopping - Arts Walk, TMPTSP, Aaron Burgess, The Framers

Saturday May 10 turned out to be quite the packed day and evening for local entertainment in Hampton Roads.  I was barely able to walk from the car to  my front door when it was over, but the exhaustion was well worth the sights and sounds that our eclectic and musical community has to offer.

I began the day by participating in the inaugural 2nd Saturday Downtown Hampton and Phoebus Arts Walk. The idea of this monthly homegrown event is for shoppes and restaurants across downtown and Phoebus to host visual artists to create their art in front of a public audience, accompanied by the backdrop of musical buskers.  The public is free to walk around and enjoy a wide variety of artistic styles and music. Jason Helmintoller and I took our acoustic guitar and bass down to Settlers Landing Road, plopped on the corner in front of The Virginia Store, and strummed away for the cars passing by in classic Outer Loop style.  After a couple hours of little walking traffic and no audience, we strolled around a bit to find other buskers, including the sweet Ukulele sounds of Leah Hart in front of the Hampton History Museum. Shortly thereafter we made our way to Phoebus to see how their section of the Arts Walk was coming along.  Unfortunately the sudden mini-monsoon (including popcorn sized and bouncing hail) rained out most of the remainder of the afternoon.  This 2nd Saturday event has a ton of potential, and hopefully the word will spread that this happens once every month for art and music lovers in the area.  The Next Arts Walk is June 14.  Check it out!

Photo by Joe Atkinson

After dinner, Sister Freshy and I rolled out for an evening of show hopping.  There were way too many great shows happening that night to choose from and I wish we could have been to all of them, but we did manage to make it to three, which were all extremely entertaining in their own rights.

Around 9pm we pulled up with perfect timing to Roger's Sports Pub in Chesapeake to find members of The Phillip Michael Thomas Search Party dressing, prepping, and passing whiskey in the parking lot.  This was a reunion show for the Search Party and although I am still fuzzy on the details, I understand their last show was held at the infamous RAT WARD in Phoebus back in the early 2000's.  What I do know is that they are comprised of the members of the excellent Hampton based noise-core/not really metal band Human Services, plus about 4 - 6 other members including the always entertaining and out-of-his-mind shock-rocker Josh Hickey (AKA Sterilization).  Many of the members were dressed in creepy intricate costumes including a guitarist on stilts, a devil, a sweet dominatrix, lots of masks, and pantyhose over a head (to name a few).  The sounds that were coming from the stage included at least three percussionists pounding away steadily plus a metal barrel that was passed/thrown around for banging on, a few guitarists, some toy bell sets, a violinist, a few screamers including Josh with a megaphone, and again, I have undoubtedly missed an instrument or four. The music and action seemed to be entirely improvisation, and there was so much going on visually and musically that there was not a dull moment during the 35 minute set.  Before the chaos began, I heard an over-macho'd bouncer make the comment "Oh, they are just a bunch of kids, you know ... expressing themselves."  Little did he know that he would soon be escorting Josh out of the establishment for stripping down to his boxers, simulating self-pleasure and then leaning over and spreading his butt cheeks wide open for all to see. The video footage below will be the best way to get an idea of what went down, because my words on this performance just aren't cutting it!  The next Phillip Michael Thomas Search Party show will be held in Phoebus in the year 2024.


The tale of Josh's Butt Parts (a hilarious must-see)



About 10 minutes of shaky footage I took

Next, we made our way to Norfolk Taphouse for "An Intimate Evening with  Aaron Burgess" This is the front man for Boneske, and from what we'd heard this would be a variety/talk show sort of thing.  Knowing Aaron we were both curious and weren't sure exactly what to expect.  We walked in and the doorman asked for "five dollars to watch Aaron shave."  We looked up on stage and sure enough, Aaron was looking into a mirror held up by a friend, shaving his beard down into a nice fat child-molester style mustache.  Also on stage were a couch and a love seat, a turntable, and a laptop.  For most of the hour or so that we stayed Burgess switched between DJing off-kilter music while he stared the crowd down ("Manhole" by Men's Recovery Project was an especially good one for this) and rambling about whatever unsettling thoughts may have been on his mind.  Part of the genius of this persona both at this event and in Boneske is that I am often confused as to whether he is joking around or not.  I am fairly certain he was trying his best to get a rise out of some Navy guys at the bar by pushing the issue of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and then launching into a story about how his gay marriage to a foreigner who wanted to move to America didn't work out.  In a different venue, Burgess may have been beat to a pulp.  The uncomfortable air in the room that he creates is as comedic as it gets for me.  The content itself is not necessarily hilarious and could be taken as truly offensive, but this is what we paid five dollars for and although I wasn't always laughing out loud I was bursting into tears on the inside.  Before we left we got to see a few minutes of Aaron's improv rap, which is kind of terrible but somehow brilliantly impressive, and then a special guest solo appearance by Will Huberdeau of Honorary Girl, singing a few songs with an acoustic guitar (always a pleasure to hear Will's pining goofball songs).  The show was well worth the time, drive, and money, and I'm glad to hear that Aaron plans to do this regularly at Norfolk Taphouse.

An Intimate Evening with Aaron Burgess

Finally, we made our way downtown Norfolk to catch The Framers' set at FM Backstage (formerly Jewish Mother Backstage, formerly Kelly's Backstage Tavern, formerly Backstage Cafe, and now the FM stands for "Food and Music").  I had not been in FM since it changed owners and name.  This is a great room for a show and The Framers played a somewhat rowdier and more energetic set than some other shows of theirs I'd seen.  I'm not sure if it was the room and the energy feeding from the stomping twirling dancing crowd, or if Scruggs and Howland had consumed just the right amount of booze, but the good times were surely on! Maria held down the bass solid and steady and glowed especially heavenly that evening in addition to her usual natural and fashionable beauty (this photo has not been altered!!).

Photo by Kelly Earl Tousignant

Unfortunately we missed the opening set by Janks but their accordionist Daniel Neale was running sound and did a fantastic job.  That being said, I was surprised to see that there was no house sound system installed as there had been in previous carnations of the restaurant.  The stage is set up so nice and the numerous racks of light make for a professional and legitimate aura about the room.  I am all too familiar with setting up a PA on stage and running up and down beside the band to tweak the sound as Neale did.  There is no shame in that at all.  But a room with the caliber and potential of FM could and should really do better.  My two cents to FM: Invest in a dedicated house soundboard and system , and make this room stand up to other true rock clubs of legendary status!

Check out the music!
Phillip Michael Thomas Search Party: https://www.facebook.com/TPMTSP
Aaron Burgess: No solo stuff but here's Boneske: http://www.boneske.com/
The Framers: http://www.theframersband.com
Janks: https://www.facebook.com/JANKSNORFOLK

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