Karen Ponzio Photo
Tatsapaugh.
Best Video’s performance space on Saturday night was packed with performers, friends and family of performers, and audience members of all ages, settling in for a three-hour show — of protest music. The place was “the right size and the right vibe,” explained the night’s organizer, Nancy Tatsapaugh, after thanking everyone for coming.
The show, titled “Should We Talk About the Government,” was a fundraiser, but Tatsapaugh also hoped it would be a “group therapy session,” as she put it to the Independent in an interview before the show. It was a chance for people to come together and “try to be there for each other,” since “we can’t get enough of that right now.”
Back in November, as Tatsapaugh watched the presidential election results come in, she thought, “Wow, this is going to be a great new time for art.” Before that day she had already had the idea in the back of her mind that something needed to be done in the music community, but according to Tatsapaugh, “the election pushed it over the edge.”
It brought to her mind some of the great protest music of the past — from Bob Dylan and Vietnam-era songwriters to the punk rock of the 1970s. She discussed it with friends while at Best Video and was encouraged to put together a show. She decided that she would contact a group of like-minded individuals to perform one cover of a protest song of their choosing as well as composing one original protest song in the hopes of “taking some of that energy, celebrating the past, and creating some new energy.”
Tatsapaugh and her band Zoo Front created that energy on Saturday night along with 11 other acts. Best Video proprietor Hank Hoffman, who would also be one of the performers with his band Happy Ending, announced that donations would be accepted all night and split among Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and IRIS. (According to Hoffman, the event raised $500.)
From the first act (Joe Russo) to the last act (Happy Ending), the night unfolded like a trip across America itself accompanied by good friends, laughter, and introspection, about the journey we are all on through these current times. Russo initiated the proceedings with a song by X called “The New World,” which described “the malaise of electing someone not good for this country.” His own composition, “No President,” was about “our own private America, the America that no one can take away from us.”
The question of how to turn outrage into response and resistance reverberated throughout the evening. Wendy Cahill’s original tune’s chorus eventually transformed its lyrics from “we’re fucked” to “they’re fucked.”
Matlock.
Some performers brought a chuckle to the crowd, including Adam Matlock who said that his original song was “a distillation of my Facebook feed for the last few months,” though he was “legitimately pissed off” and hoped his song would be more like Dylan or Rage Against the Machine. Matlock invited the crowd to sing along with him during his second song, a cover of Pete Hamill’s “The Old School Tie.”
Washington.
Others also invited the audience to sing along, as Hanifa Washington did with “Self-Revolution,” her original song and self-described “mantra.” Frank Critelli added a little piece of “Hey Jude” to the end of his George Harrison cover “Isn’t It a Pity.”
Other times a sing along request was not needed. As Jeff Cedrone and Tommy Hogan covered Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” members of the crowd were easily heard joining in on the chorus.
There were also moments of raw emotion. Lys Guillorn sang an original tune she wrote after reading “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, ending the song teary and broken-voiced as members of the audience sniffed and teared up along with her. Xavier Serrano created moments of utter silence as he delicately strummed his guitar to accompany the poignant lyrics of his original song “Headlines.”
The punk rock aesthetic also made its way into the evening via The Sawtelles’ cover of the Psychedelic Furs’ “President Gas.” Zoo Front’s original tune was inspired by “a certain leader of a nation saying he was going to put anyone who burned the flag in jail.”
Happy Ending aptly ended the evening; their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” had people singing and dancing, and the floor of Best Video shaking.
Adam.
Seth Adam, the penultimate performer, not only sang a passionate cover of Dylan’s “Masters of War,” but also described a newfound passion in his desire to think of others more than ever, after learning that he was going to be a father later this year. His pleas of “finding goodness and peace and joy in one another” seemed to sum up what “Should We Talk About the Government” was all about. When Nancy thanked everyone at the end of the night and said that “we’ll get through this and make things even better,” it was apparent that people left believing that could actually happen.
Thanks to Pete Brunelli for the above video of the Sawtelles.
The night’s performers.
