The show began with a dramatic photo of a (presumably nuclear) mushroom cloud displayed on a large makeshift screen behind the stage. Fast talking family patriarch, lead singer, and guitarist/keyboardist, Jason Trachtenburg, came out to prep the audience about the band’s unique concept. The explanation of his family’s band was as funny and entertaining as it was informative. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, are exactly that, a family band that plays music to a slideshow projected onstage behind them, or as Trachtenburg put it, “We’re an indie, vaudeville, conceptual art, pop rock band.” The family (Trachtenburg, slide projector/costume designer, Tina Pina Trachtenburg, and 12-year old drummer Rachel Pina Trachtenburg) collects vintage slideshows (mostly from the 1960s and 70s) and belongings of what they affectionately call ADS’s-or anonymous dead strangers-from estate sales and garage sales and then turn their lives into pop music.
Trachtenburg’s opening monologue facetiously focused on technology-specifically an entertainingly archaic corporate slideshow about a defunct line or system of vaguely looking computer (or pre-computer) technology called Super D. We may never know what Super D is, but it makes for a hilariously campy slideshow.
The TFSP opened with their theme song, a typical indie-rock song that was equally reminiscent of the Replacements (guitar) and School House Rock (vocals and melody). The group’s second song, World’s Best Friend-was just as entertaining as the opener (perhaps because it didn’t sound much different than the first song). But a TFSP show isn’t just about the music-it is a multimedia production presenting visual images of strangers that are at once foreign and familiar to produce an unpolished history of someone that is at once interesting, ironic, humorous, tragic and completely entertaining. The slideshows are so entertaining-sometimes telling the hokey story of two retired military nurses (through a lifetime of randomly organized slides depicting Christmas parties, vacations, family get-togethers and backyard barbecues) and other times just providing visuals for nonsensical, albeit literal, lyrics “Here we are; there’s a bear up against the car” (sung to a photo of the nurses followed by one of a bear up against a car) – that the music frequently takes a backseat to the slideshow. But you’re unlikely to stop tapping your feet to the beat.
Four songs into their set, the TFSP break for a Q&A session with the audience, moderated by the band’s loquacious leader. The crowd enthusiastically played along with such serious questions as the band’s genesis and Rachel’s schooling, as well as not so serious questions, “Have you ever been mistaken for Rick Moranis?”
Questions answered, the trio returned to its performance with a song entitled “Christian Terror”, which was described as “our one ballad, our only slow song” though it didn’t sound much different (or slower) than any of their other songs. The TFSP closed with their “biggest song”, “Mountain Trip to Japan 1959”, which offered more of the same humor-infused, toe-tapping, indie, pop rock; not to mention many impressive 30-year old shots of Mount Fuji.
Looking as if she’d just rolled in from Burning Man-decked out in a poodle print dress, electric blue wig, playful pink sunglasses, and swan hat-Gabby La La removed a stuffed (non-metaphorical) monkey from her back and hung it in on the microphone as she introduced herself to the crowd at the Troubadour. Accompanying herself on ukulele, she opened with the whimsical tune, “Backpack”, inviting the audience to sing along. The ukulele provided a skeleton background for an extremely catchy lyric-driven song. Gabby’s interesting pixie-like voice easily carried the song’s melody whose hook immediately caught the audience’s attention.
Gabby’s second song, played on a sitar cradled in a fuzzy purple holder, was punctuated by long musical interludes between lyrics (which were also catchy but not as bouncy and hooking as “Backpack”). After a few minutes of impressive sitar playing, she set the instrument on the floor (while the rhythm played on a loop) and began gesticulating her arms in mysterious patterns, to most of the crowd’s delight (but the bewilderment of some), in order to play a Theremin. Gabby La La’s performances are filled with such gimmicks-at one point electronically altering her voice by singing through a toy megaphone.
The guy next to me remarked that Gabby was reminiscent of Judy Tenuta. In appearance, perhaps, but don’t let the costume or stuffed animals distract you -Gabby La La is a musical talent who puts on a very original performance. Like other artists, she invites the audience to enjoy a unique creative experience rather than pander to expectations or recycle the routines of others. A solo act who somehow sounds like a duo, Gabby’s high pitched voice-at times a whisper-often seems to back up her own lead vocals.
Song number three, played on an accordion, waxed humorously philosophical with lyrics posing such questions as, “Why did the chicken cross the road? What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Again, it was a quirky, quick, and interesting performance. Gabby La La plays complex songs with a lot of rhythm and melody. Her next number, “Raindrops”, was played on a toy piano. However, many of her lyrics (which were packed as tightly as a Dylan song) were lost in the Troubadour’s rock and roll acoustics.
As she did with the sitar earlier, during her next song Gabby put the ukulele on the floor partway through while the music continued. She then withdrew a sparkly lighted wand from her bag of tricks and did The Robot on stage while waving the wand around-energizing the crowd and drawing the loudest applause of the evening. With the looped ukulele rhythm, she donned her sitar and sang “boogie woogie man in a black dress”, thereby closing her performance with a fun and energetic number.
