The Echo Lounge – June 12 The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players have somehow tricked the press into playing along with their entire conceptual joke, or idea… or fluke. The fluke/idea/joke began when Jason Trachtenburg wrote a song about a set of slides his wife found at a garage sale. At his shows, this tiny little fluke turned out to be a great idea.
Soon all of Jason’s songs were accompanied by garage sale slide shows, and Entertainment Weekly branded The TFSP as New York’s “hottest ticket.” Welcome to the buzz. The TFSP are arguably playing off of an outsider music idea (bad music as good music) but interestingly, the press’s claims are as bold as Jason’s. Usually a band plays down it’s own hype (Interpol, White Stripes) or talks up their own hype (The Hives) but the media and the Trachtenburgs are saying the exact same things. Basically, it’s hard to know what to expect from a band with this much positive, linear attention.
So I walked into the Echo Lounge and the first thing I saw was Jason Trachtenburg manning the merchandise table. He is all that I had imagined. He’s small, frail and extremely nerdy looking—a mix between Rick Moranis and Woody Allen. Dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, his arms awkwardly poked out his sleeves as if they’d rather be doing something else. I wondered what could possibly be going on behind his vault-thick glasses. Is he funny or insane? Is he sarcastic or egotistical? I never figured it out, but at least he was humble enough to sit smiling behind his own merchandise table.
Skip ahead about an hour. Skip past Langhorne Slim, the exceptional opening act for the majority of the tour who mixes Tom Waits with Jack Black. Skip past the wait for the lengthy gear set up. The Trachtenburg’s emerge from the dungeons of back stage and the antsy crowd greets them with delight. The family stands momentarily, as if posing for a family portrait. Jason is now clad in a kimono looking dress-coat, Rachel in a rainbow colored boa and a dress that matches Jason’s coat. Tina sports punky red-died pigtails towering almost a foot over her head. The show begins here, but not the music.
The family portrait breaks up and Jason immediately begins talking about what the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are all about and why their idea could revolutionize the entertainment industry. Meanwhile, Tina and Rachel man their instruments in preparation. As Jason continues to talk, his daughter struggles to wrap her boa around the drums, to bring the mic to her lips, to lower her hi-hats, to pull the kick drum closer and to move her crash cymbal to the left. Of course, it’s way too much for a nine-year-old to deal with so she interrupts her dad, “I need help.” The audience gives a hushed “awww” as it dawns on everyone that Rachel is the star of the show and the family.
Finally, about 30 minutes after taking the stage, The TFSP plays a song. “Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959” is good enough to keep the audience watching. It sounds like outsider music led mostly by Rachel’s off-the-wall drumming. The good thing is, it never felt pretentious, as the Trachtenburgs make it pretty clear that this whole thing is a joke. Jason’s Jimmy Fallon-like sputtering on the microphone keeps you in tune to the joke the whole concert.
About 45 minutes into the show Jason announced that they had one more song to play and the crowd gave out a sigh to which Jason replied, “Don’t worry! Don’t worry! It’s a six-song rock opera!” They closed with six spectacular songs about a Corporate McDonald’s meeting in 1977.
Jason Trachtenburg is funny and often witty but he has a hard time deciding when he is taking it too far and when it’s time to play a song. At times his banter neutralizes the impact and spontaneity of what you are seeing. Between every song there is at least a seven- to 10-minute speech about where the slides came from and a quick reminder of what the Trachtenburgs are all about with their fluke of a clever idea. Jason, we know, and we think it’s funny; that’s why we are all here.
The highlight of the night was “Middle America,” a story vaguely about, well … Americans living in the middle part of the country. That’s just how simple it is with the Trachtenburgs, they pick up dead people’s slideshows and they write songs about them, clever, simple and deadpan.