Imagine being stranded in a foreign country with no money, no maps, no itinerary and a guitar. Imagine being promised hotels, food, transportation and gigs months in advance as specified in a contract and instead being greeted with an old barn, no running water and buses without drivers.
Last Friday, October 3, I was invited to a private screening where I could peer through the gaze of 26 musicians who were thrown into that situation. Generation Tec is a rock-u-mentry still in progress and part of a trilogy of films documenting the travels, trials and tribulations of six bands promised premier treatment as part of the “EuroTour” advocating world peace, which were instead forced to build an entire United States tour on their own, over night.
The film was originally designed to document 14 bands invited from all over the world to play around the United States. However, after several bands were fired or quit, only six were left to salvage the tour. The bands came to America and met their tour promoter, Lou Ricca, who essentially left them with nothing but a tour “put together on wishes.” There were no hotels booked, no meals planned and no venue dates confirmed, just a rough tour route planned in the shape of a heart when drawn out like connect-the-dots on the map and a few hopeful show dates.
The film begins with a narrative delivered by Dionne Lennon, runner-up for the VH1 song of the year competition and winner of the American Idol Underground song-writing competition who had two songs, which placed in the top ten “Teenage Years” and “Last Day”. She speaks about her generation, “generation tech” and the disconnection between the youth culture, which comprises it and those who came before. She discusses the changing times and the fear that surrounds the American public today, citing examples of teens being prosecuted as terrorists for prank calls and using myspace.com inappropriately behind their parent’s backs.
However, Lennon also takes the opportunity to advocate positive uses for the Internet by introducing each of the bands, which participated in the tour and utilize myspace.com as a tool for sharing their music. The bands include: Exit Avenue from England, The Models of Sweden, Midterm Break of the UK, XMS 3 from Wales, Doana, originally from France and Lennon along with the Medicine Ball Caravan, representing the United States.
The tour and film begin at Yasgur’s Farm, the site of the original Woodstock music festival, for what was promised to be a major show on the tour. The 26 musicians instead found only an old barn with no running water, no bathrooms, no beds, no food, no equipment, no show and no air conditioning. From there, the “Magical Misery Tour” began.
Though celebrity appearances by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gwen Stefani, Neil Young, Tom Waits and others had been promised at each performance along with a variety of other amenities expected by musicians participating in a professionally booked tour, Ricca fell through with each of his guarantees. He forced the musicians to go days without food and running water and made members of the bands drive the vans from Yasgur’s Farm to New York City. However, upon arriving, Ricca abandoned the bands without a hotel in the middle of Manhattan, even though most of the musicians were under 21, some were under 18 and a 7-year-old and 5-month-old were traveling with the group.
“We started the tour with a full film crew,” explained actor, writer and director Victor Colicchio. “But once the tour fell apart, there was no way we could keep filming. That’s when Dionne took over.”
The entire film is from the personal perspective and camera of Dionne Lennon as she recorded the car rides, shows, pit stops, meetings and down time of the musicians as they continued their tour, planning shows, hotels and travel routes as they went, despite the obstacles.
Though the tour was downgraded to only two booked shows, thanks to Ricca, the musicians managed to work together and plan a tour spanning from New York City to Miami virtually overnight. Using their only available resources, the computer and cell phones, the musicians successfully booked the tour as they traveled and made stops at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Graceland during their travels.
“Originally, no one had plans to continue beyond the shows in Ohio because there was not enough money and nothing planned,” said Colicchio. “But, Dionne convinced them to stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that motivated everyone to stay on tour.”
After stopping in Cleveland, the group continued to Graceland, Nashville and eventually Florida, though the bands were originally reluctant to continue touring with so little resources.
“We were all out of money and on our way back to Pennsylvania when we noticed at a rest stop that Venice (a seven-year-old also present on the tour) and the drummer of Exit Avenue were dressed exactly the same,” said Colicchio. “It was right then that we all started laughing and realized we were a family and no one wanted to go home anymore. So, we turned right around and went down to Florida for the shows.”
However, upon the abrupt change of plans and calls back to venues to re-book the shows, the tour was met with even more obstacles as a major accident caused the highway to be shut down. It was only by luck that the group ran into a truck driver at a rest stop that offered an alternative route, which enabled the musicians to continue their journey.
“It was as if everything was stopping them from going, but it didn’t matter,” said Colicchio. “The bands didn’t even care about the money, they knew they had to play the shows for themselves and decided to make them free because they didn’t care if they were playing to five people or five hundred. They just wanted to play.”
It is this progression from strangers, to friends to family, which the film begins to capture. As the first of three in the series, Generation Tec successfully peaks the curiosity of viewers, making them anxious to see how the remainder of the tour develops.
“Because there are so many main characters, Generation Tec is necessary to emotionally set up the next two films and develop the setting,” said Colicchio. “The second film documents more of the tour and the third is about their ultimate success.”
Though Colicchio is more involved with the second two films, he left the filming and editing of Generation Tec in the hands of Dionne Lennon and Kutztown University undergraduate, Justin Tuerk.
“We used the green screen effect a lot in Generation Tec,” said Tuerk in a question and answer session after the film. “Rather than just have talking heads, we used the green screen to mix footage of the bands and the interviews we had with them to keep it more interesting.”
Tuerk was brought into the project as an assistant, but instantly fell in love with the idea of the film and took on full responsibility of the task. Though the production of the film was guided by Colicchio, the writer of Summer of Sam and actor in Inside Man and The Brave One, and it was produced by Jeri Carroll (Summer of Sam) and Dave Pederson (Supersize Me) each only provided guidance to the two young editors and allowed them full creativity.
“Considering their ages added together is still only 34, I’d say they’ve done a pretty good job,” said Colicchio with regard to Lennon and Tuerk’s work on the film.
Judging by the audience’s response, they agreed with Colicchio’s praise and many expressed excitement for the rest of the trilogy and interest in asking Lennon about her experiences. When asked if she would do it all again, despite the problems, Lennon earnestly responded, “I would definitely do it again, but only because of the people. I couldn’t see it all fall apart because of one person.” And she is glad she did not allow that to happen, “I still talk to every one of the bands to this day and it’s been a year since the tour.”
Though at times the tour seemed doomed for failure, these 26 musicians came together and were able to succeed despite all odds. It is amazing what is possible with a little help from your friends.
For more information check out: www.generationtecmovie.com
Monday, October 13, 2008
Run like an Antelope
The timing was perfect for the tribute band Strange Design to begin their first East Coast tour. Their inspiration, the classic jam-band Phish, announced their return to the stage only one week prior to the first night of Strange Design’s tour, which began last Wednesday night at Rocktown Bar and Grill.
The newly formed tribute band is currently traveling up and down the East Coast making stops in Burlington, Vermont to Delray Beach, Florida, and will hit major cities including Boston and New York City along the way.
After Phish announced their twenty years of touring had reached an end at a concert in Northern Vermont back in 2004, the musical landscape looked bleak for Phish-heads looking to relive their favorite performances. Like the Grateful Dead before them, Phish was well-known for taking seven minute album cuts and transforming them into twenty minute long jams, unique to each and every live performance. However, Phish concerts also captured something different from the Dead or any band prior or preceding them, which Strange Design seeks to recreate.
“The goal is to get the fans involved creatively,” said band members and loyal Phish fans, Aaron Levy, Ben Markowitz and brothers Adam and Matt Chase.
“There hasn’t been a band since that can compare with the live performances of Phish,” said drummer Adam Chase. “There was Zappa and The Talking Heads, but there hasn’t been another that delivers such a unique and fun show.”
The band formed and is based out of Charleston, South Carolina, though members attended schools much further north including Princeton, Towson and the University of Maryland and studied subjects ranging from Architecture to Russian History.
“The Russian History comes in handy sometimes,” joked bassist Ben Markowitz, who majored in music at Princeton. Markowitz went on to work in the business side of the music industry as a Booking Agent in New York City following school. “It was a smaller agency out of Manhattan and was a good transitional job that gave me a solid understanding of the business and so many connections, but I would much rather play.”
Each of the members has been in several bands prior to the creation of Strange Design, some of which played in Harrisonburg previously. In addition to the tribute band, all the members are currently involved in another original project, Emotive, a soul-rock group featuring lead vocalist Elise Testone.
However, the members seem to agree that though Strange Design is based upon the music of another band, it serves as a “great exercise” for their musicianship.
“Most people don’t realize how specific many of the long jams are in many of the songs,” explained Markowitz. “It’s a challenge to play some of the really hard, really long instrumentals and we transcribe and learn them all by ear.”
This intricate attention to detail and delivery of the live performance are other factors, which set Strange Design apart from other bands.
“Cover bands can play whatever they want,” said Adam Chase. “But with a tribute band, we really do the whole show with the deeper cuts and overall performance. We focus on recreating the entire experience.”
In Wednesday’s particular performance, this included a set list from a Phish show performed August 1, 1999 at the Fuji Rock Festival in Naeba, Niigata, Japan and even incorporated trampolines during the encore.
“Phish would really bring the audience into their shows,” said Markowitz. “They used to do something called the Big Ball Jam where they would throw big different-colored balls into the crowd, each of which represented a different instrument and depending on how high the crowd hit them, that would determine what the instrument did.”
Though Wednesday’s show did not involve hitting beach balls, it was not simply a matter of choice. Each show Strange Design performs is done exactly how the Phish concert was carried out and shows are determined by fan requests submitted on the website, www.thestrangedesign.com.
“It used to take a lot longer to learn a show, because every single one is different,” said keyboardist Aaron Levy. “But by this point we can really just listen to the recording of the show on the car ride between and learn most of it.”
The band decides how songs will be performed by listening carefully to their recordings, taking notes, discussing what they hear and they eventually come to a consensus over how the song will be performed after listening to as many versions as possible.
“One of my favorite show memories was from one in Greensboro where we recreated a show where Trey does a monologue in “Run Like An Antelope” about going to a grocery store and getting a cantaloupe,” said Markowitz. “When we did it in our show, part of it says to hold the cantaloupe over your head and the whole audience was out there holding imaginary cantaloupes up in the air.”
In addition to the many props and effects the band uses to recreate the atmosphere of their favorite shows, Strange Design also uses a complex lighting system to enhance the experience run by a friend and nearly 5th member of the band, James Brown.
Though Brown studied geology and is currently studying geographic information systems through an online graduate program offered by Penn State, he is also an accomplished light engineer and Phish fan, attending a total of 144 Phish shows.
“After 144 shows, I’ve seen many good and many bad,” said Brown. “But Strange Design definitely have it down. Matt is a genius on guitar and they practice non-stop. They are the closest you can come to Phish.”
That is, the closest you can come to Phish until they return to Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA March 6-8. However, due to the extreme demand for tickets that will not be on sale until Saturday, October 18, Phish fans can rely on Strange Design for their fix.
“Phish always delivered a good show,” said Adam Chase. “We were too young for the Dead and there was no sense in pop that was always the same. Phish was always different, with an eclectic range of styles and excellent musicianship. They were a major influence on us and we are just paying them homage.”
If Strange Design is simply paying Phish homage, Trey, Mike, Jon and Page should be flattered as the show Wednesday was arguably one of the best performances hosted at Rocktown to date. Next time Strange Design graces Harrisonburg with their presence, Phish-heads and anyone who can appreciate talent, incredible musicianship and an exciting, interactive stage show, should flock.
For more: www.thestrangedesign.com
www.myspace.com/thestrangedesign
The newly formed tribute band is currently traveling up and down the East Coast making stops in Burlington, Vermont to Delray Beach, Florida, and will hit major cities including Boston and New York City along the way.
After Phish announced their twenty years of touring had reached an end at a concert in Northern Vermont back in 2004, the musical landscape looked bleak for Phish-heads looking to relive their favorite performances. Like the Grateful Dead before them, Phish was well-known for taking seven minute album cuts and transforming them into twenty minute long jams, unique to each and every live performance. However, Phish concerts also captured something different from the Dead or any band prior or preceding them, which Strange Design seeks to recreate.
“The goal is to get the fans involved creatively,” said band members and loyal Phish fans, Aaron Levy, Ben Markowitz and brothers Adam and Matt Chase.
“There hasn’t been a band since that can compare with the live performances of Phish,” said drummer Adam Chase. “There was Zappa and The Talking Heads, but there hasn’t been another that delivers such a unique and fun show.”
The band formed and is based out of Charleston, South Carolina, though members attended schools much further north including Princeton, Towson and the University of Maryland and studied subjects ranging from Architecture to Russian History.
“The Russian History comes in handy sometimes,” joked bassist Ben Markowitz, who majored in music at Princeton. Markowitz went on to work in the business side of the music industry as a Booking Agent in New York City following school. “It was a smaller agency out of Manhattan and was a good transitional job that gave me a solid understanding of the business and so many connections, but I would much rather play.”
Each of the members has been in several bands prior to the creation of Strange Design, some of which played in Harrisonburg previously. In addition to the tribute band, all the members are currently involved in another original project, Emotive, a soul-rock group featuring lead vocalist Elise Testone.
However, the members seem to agree that though Strange Design is based upon the music of another band, it serves as a “great exercise” for their musicianship.
“Most people don’t realize how specific many of the long jams are in many of the songs,” explained Markowitz. “It’s a challenge to play some of the really hard, really long instrumentals and we transcribe and learn them all by ear.”
This intricate attention to detail and delivery of the live performance are other factors, which set Strange Design apart from other bands.
“Cover bands can play whatever they want,” said Adam Chase. “But with a tribute band, we really do the whole show with the deeper cuts and overall performance. We focus on recreating the entire experience.”
In Wednesday’s particular performance, this included a set list from a Phish show performed August 1, 1999 at the Fuji Rock Festival in Naeba, Niigata, Japan and even incorporated trampolines during the encore.
“Phish would really bring the audience into their shows,” said Markowitz. “They used to do something called the Big Ball Jam where they would throw big different-colored balls into the crowd, each of which represented a different instrument and depending on how high the crowd hit them, that would determine what the instrument did.”
Though Wednesday’s show did not involve hitting beach balls, it was not simply a matter of choice. Each show Strange Design performs is done exactly how the Phish concert was carried out and shows are determined by fan requests submitted on the website, www.thestrangedesign.com.
“It used to take a lot longer to learn a show, because every single one is different,” said keyboardist Aaron Levy. “But by this point we can really just listen to the recording of the show on the car ride between and learn most of it.”
The band decides how songs will be performed by listening carefully to their recordings, taking notes, discussing what they hear and they eventually come to a consensus over how the song will be performed after listening to as many versions as possible.
“One of my favorite show memories was from one in Greensboro where we recreated a show where Trey does a monologue in “Run Like An Antelope” about going to a grocery store and getting a cantaloupe,” said Markowitz. “When we did it in our show, part of it says to hold the cantaloupe over your head and the whole audience was out there holding imaginary cantaloupes up in the air.”
In addition to the many props and effects the band uses to recreate the atmosphere of their favorite shows, Strange Design also uses a complex lighting system to enhance the experience run by a friend and nearly 5th member of the band, James Brown.
Though Brown studied geology and is currently studying geographic information systems through an online graduate program offered by Penn State, he is also an accomplished light engineer and Phish fan, attending a total of 144 Phish shows.
“After 144 shows, I’ve seen many good and many bad,” said Brown. “But Strange Design definitely have it down. Matt is a genius on guitar and they practice non-stop. They are the closest you can come to Phish.”
That is, the closest you can come to Phish until they return to Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA March 6-8. However, due to the extreme demand for tickets that will not be on sale until Saturday, October 18, Phish fans can rely on Strange Design for their fix.
“Phish always delivered a good show,” said Adam Chase. “We were too young for the Dead and there was no sense in pop that was always the same. Phish was always different, with an eclectic range of styles and excellent musicianship. They were a major influence on us and we are just paying them homage.”
If Strange Design is simply paying Phish homage, Trey, Mike, Jon and Page should be flattered as the show Wednesday was arguably one of the best performances hosted at Rocktown to date. Next time Strange Design graces Harrisonburg with their presence, Phish-heads and anyone who can appreciate talent, incredible musicianship and an exciting, interactive stage show, should flock.
For more: www.thestrangedesign.com
www.myspace.com/thestrangedesign
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