As I write this, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are sleeping in my two spare rooms. Tina (Mom) and Rachel (daughter) is sleeping in my sister's room. Jason (Dad) is sleeping on a couch. Opening act TY (Touching You) is sleeping in the spare room. They had just put on a very interesting and conceptual show at the Boot. The concept: rummage through estate sales, auction houses, yard sales, etc. and buy up all the photo slides they can find. Arrrange such photo slides so they Jason can write a song around them. Play song live with slideshow accompaniment. Check them out here.
In the middle of the show, they hosted a Q&A session. At the end, they asked their own question, "Does anyone have the room to hole us up for the night? We're a small band and literally can't afford to stay the night in a hotel. If anyone has extra room, we'd really appreciate it. We'll give you our sincerest gratitude and gladly give you a bunch of free merch from our collection."
Seeing as there was only 4 of them, I figured "What the hell?" and made the offer. Unbeknownst to me, I was actually in competion with another generous Boot-ian. Both of us had one problem: Tina has a completely unbased psychological fear of cats and we both had one cat. I told her I'd try to kep the cat out of the rooms they were in and Tina said, "Deal".
We stopped at a local 7-11, Tina bought some bread so they could make "phony baloney sandwiches" as they are all vegatarians. They offered me one; I passed as I enjoy my meat and never liked baloney past the 3rd grade.
While they made their sandwiches, Jason and I discussed this appearance and how frustrating it can be being a conceptual act appearing on television. I had previously seen David Byrne on The Colbert Report and felt that the travelling cameras and multiple angles ruined the presentation Byrne was looking for. Since he had backing dancers and musicians whose movements were choreographed to the song, I felt a fixed camera located center-stage would be best. Jason agreed and said, "When we were doing this show, we told them it was VERY IMPORTANT that the camera be focused on he screen at certain times because we very well couldn't have me singing words that made no sense because there wasn't a corresponding image along side it."
Afterwards, I showed them their respective rooms, gave them towels for their morning showers, and said our goodnights.
What will await me in the morning? I have no idea but I have told them I hope to be awake when they leave. It would seem rude of me to not say my goodbyes and wish them well...even if they are total strangers.
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