Ska Fans are Proud People

I found out last night that 17-year-old fans of local ska bands do not like it at all when you say you don't really like ska. If you are ever in a tightly packed crowd, waiting for the opening ska act to finish in order to see a band you like more follow them, never say out loud to the person you are with, "I don't really like ska, so let me know if you want to go sit outside." If you do, expect every person wearing checkered Vans slip-ons in the room to glare an evil glare that says, "I want to do awful things to you with my trombone."

That was the scene for the first half of last night for me. I went to the Werehouse in Winston-Salem to see a friend's band, and had to wait through a ska group to see said band. I've tried so hard before to like ska and reggae, but both just do not entertain me in any form. Except for laughing at characters that you see at ska shows and the white Rasta kids who love reggae, there is nothing entertaining about those kinds of music for me. I tried, but just couldn't catch on.

The band I wanted to see, Holland, 1945, played beyond my expectations. All I had ever heard before were some demo-quality recordings, and seeing them live made any mp3 I had heard pale in comparison. I feel the band's name is a tad bit misleading - I don't hear any traces of Neutral Milk Hotel in this two guy, two girl group, but more like Sunny Day Real Estate without any screaming. Kudos to these kids on big, loud guitars, as well as bass lines that aren't boring.

And one other thing - I've never been to a show in Winston-Salem that started anywhere close to the advertised time.

Mimes, Bombs, and Rock n' Roll

Clap If You're Confused and Autopassion at the Werehouse


Last night was the first time I'd been to The Werehouse since Halloween of 2005, and the changes made there in the past two years are astounding. Altogether, The Werehouse contains an art gallery, indoor performance area, outdoor performance area, coffee shop, bar, and has living space for artists. On Saturday mornings, it is also the host to a local farmer's market. The place has grown from a hole in the wall kind of dive to possibly one of the better places to be in Winston-Salem. I think the indoor performance area, as small as it is, is my favorite of all the clubs in town. It gets a slight edge over The Garage for having a lending library where you can take and leave books. Last night, The Werehouse was so much cleaner and less-smokey than before.



The lineup for the show, scheduled to start at 9:30, was Autopassion, Clap If You're Confused, and Brother Reade. In true form, Autopassion hopped on stage sometime after 10PM, and played to a truly excited crowd. This band never ceases to puzzle me when I see them. I wonder how they play what seems to be Winston-Salem and Winston-Salem only without completely exhausting their fans. Autopassion is fun, but from what I can tell, they don't bring new material to every show. Last night, they redeemed themselves for me a bit - I had seen them a few months before at a free show at NCSA and it was not a good show for them at all. The band seemed tighter last night, and the crowd responded. I am always struck by just how talented Autopassion drummer Lee Hinshaw is. He is the type of drummer that makes you say, "I want to play music with that guy." Little guy just flails, and it is a lot of fun to watch and listen to. Guitarist Tim Poovey and Hinshaw were great together last night, and I had a lot of fun watching the two. I would talk about what songs they played, but I wasn't able to understand a majority of the words Andy Siebert sang. It could have possibly been the PA system, but at any rate, he was difficult to comprehend.


After Autopassion finished their set, most people moved to the outdoors performance space to catch Clap If You're Confused's piece, 'Taxidermy Journey.' I came into this with about as open a mind as possible - I had seen one member perform in a dance company a year ago, but nothing besides that. The piece started off with a humorous and melodramatic video of two dolls, one lamenting over a lover, one plotting to blow up a train. After the video ended, the music changed and two mimes (in the above picture) perform on a fixture that was one part box, one part monkey-bars. The partnered work between the two of them with pieces of fabric was a lot of fun to watch. I'd say more, but I don't know anything about dance, so I would most likely sound foolish. The live performance between the two mimes shadowed the humorous video, and for a while it was more serious than the video. Music choices for the piece hopped genres from classical, country-western, jazz, and rock n' roll. The performance took place all around the seats. I think the part I enjoyed more than anything was when the good mime danced as she ate dinner and drank wine on top of a table. After that though, things kinda went downhill. As more characters were introduced, starting with a train, the show got farcical. As the bad mime, plotted to blow up the train tracks, there was a struggle for an over sized, comical bomb between the two mimes and the train. As the bomb "exploded," symbolized by a long piece of red fabric that was pulled out of the black ball, the mimes were draped with the red fabric, and the music ended. Show over, right? Wrong. Then, three demons marched out on stage, joined by a preacher. The preacher and demons then raised the mimes from the dead, and all involved started into a punk rock song, with the demons on drums, guitar, and bass and the preacher leading in vocals. The Mimes and musicians danced through the crowd as demons played Bad Religion-esque music for roughly ten minutes.

I watched the piece with a group of dancers (some collegiate, a couple professional) and I was much more entertained by the piece than they were. Needless to say, the second half of the piece lacked the artistic integrity I think they were hoping for. It was comical, not terribly serious, and admittedly, not terribly artistic either. So, I concede that point. However, it was fun, and I'd go back to watch something Clap If You're Confused does again. It was late by the time the performance art piece finished, and I didn't have it in me to stay for the final band, Brother Reade. Overall, last night's show made for a good weekend.