Indyish MonthlyMess2- Tricycle housed the vibe

For me last night’s MonthlyMess started with taping the Indyish business card down the long halls and up the stairs of the old RCA building, up to the Tricycle Media studio, all the ones I’d brought, until I had none left. I’ve been lost in this building before, coming to parties in the Kobayashi practice space, way back before Indyish. The building is half creepy, half amazing. The halls feel like they’re out of a horror movie a bit, all bendy and yellow and flourescently lit, but then each floor has several open doors with lovely jam packed art studios of various kinds. And when you do get lost in there you can hear several different types of music echoing long down the halls. It’s nice, actually.

Arriving at the Tricycle space the warm, paper-walls of their studio echoed down the halls with soul remixed and folk with funk, all by G S Blott. We saw the ante room hung with bright bits of life. The social beveraging and cozy comingling on mismatched bright couches and good chairs already well begun. Met by the fantastically warm smiles of our new friends and hosts, and co-producers of the show last night, Tricycle Media; and Josh, with a twinkle in his eye of having pulled a good show together, just about to unleash it and see what would happen. The art on the wall, by Jenny Shade, Dustin Wilson (of Tricycle), Greg Ryan and photos by MJ Caro was a seriously fine start and they made a bright uplifting eye soothin combination.

El and I stationned ourselves at the door with our “Pay What You Can” sign and watched the room fill up, and soaked it alll in.

James Finnerty started the night with his calm, quiet wit and heart-hurting hopeful lyrics and masterful guitar.

The poets Michael Lista and Jon Stewart, and performance artist Jacqueline Van Der Greer, were all poignant and hilarious in their unique ways. Elizabeth Bruce channelled a set with group hand clapping and lyrics that flit from English to French in a way that felt like it’d been caught directly from on the air here.

Franco Proietti, an excellent showman and super dear guy, formerly of the aforementionned Kobayashi, cracked jokes and told stories about his songs a bit, then hit play on the beats and soundscapes he’s been producing lately, and let fly with his mad, passionate and (shock) marvelously uncheezy sax playing. The songs are short and funky and he’s building layers to them now in different directions, with poets, like his grand guest last night, and friends from Shades of Culture, classical music, dance and beyond. Franco is excited about the MonthlyMess as a supportive testing ground for the project as it evolves, so watch for that and hopefully more Indyish blogging from him soon.

And then ahh the Unsettlers. My second time seeing them this week, so I let myself drift to the back after recording their first song, and stomped my feet and listened, smiling, from by the door. And even from there the mounting, haunting hootenanying was thunderous, I gotta say, and the laugh-with-pleasure was contagious.

Lots of folks told us they dug the all-styles-can-be-good vibe. Franco compared it to a scene in Steppenwolf, but I haven’t read that. For us it’s still always just cool that Indyish is something more then an idea in our heads.

There were good vibes all around, and only a few of those last minute improvisations that are a prerequisite of attempting a a show with many elements at a brand new venue (e.g. our dj expected a different set up, one act stayed home sick, we ran out of drinks right after the performances finished, we underccommunicated a bit here and there during planning, tralala).

There’s always chaos, but if you’re lucky and persistent there’s also always good stuff. Case in point, for the history books of the second monthly mess: Over the course of the night excited voices circulated that a certain well known art critic was in the room. Moments later, as will go down in mess lore, our friends in town from L.A. received word they’d secured the last bit of investment for their new romantic comedy. (”RomCom” apparently.. heh). Between that cheers-enducing goodstuff happening and new links forming all around, we applauded art that told the truth about things - I’m thinking especially of Michael Lista - with such poetic rhythmic excellence that the truth simultaeneously was sweeter and cut deeper. And I especially liked Jonathan Stewart’s bit, when I remembered it again today, about men and women subconsciously tuning out voices so the notes we speak harmonize with each other.

We walked past the Russian party on the way out and waved goodbye. And on the way down we saw almost all the Indyish cards I’d taped up as last minute signage were gone.

Later on we’ll probably we say we planned that bit of marketing. =)

The full list of artists who performed, with links to websites for further browsing, is available on the Mess page.

Eric Hein of the Northerners was at the show last night and has already posted a nice write up about it on his front page. It was great to see him and his brother again, I hope we see lots more of them around.

Tristan and Marilis should both have photo blogs of the night coming soon. And we’ve got the video footage as soon as we can process it. If you want to bookmark something to stay tuned to, there’s the MonthlyMess tag archive, or check in on the Events page toward the end of the month to see what’ll be coming around. Or just watch the blog. That’s good too. ohhhhh k Gnight and thanks all. risa.