The Big Art (and Crafts and Music) Show @ The Rock and Roll Hotel
Co-written by DCist Contributor Paul Ghosh-Roy
Get together a bunch of artists, a bunch of bands, a cool venue, and a great time is had by all. On Saturday night, DCist ventured into the land of perfectly disheveled hair and meticulously scuffed jeans to see if the theory worked in practice as The Rock and Roll Hotel hosted the Big Art Show . The event is organized by a collective of artists and volunteers based out of the greater New Jersey area. In the past four years they have mounted over 50 shows. Their goal is to provide a platform for independent artists and musicians to perform and exhibit their work in front of varied audiences and in an environment “devoid of the pressure and insincerities of the public media.”
The show featured two floors of work by dozens of artists as well as performances by five bands (think Adams Morgan Day, but smaller, indoors, and catering to the indie hipster set). We walked into the show wondering whether the emphasis on quantity would reflect poorly on the quality of the art and music. We also questioned whether it is possible to have a balanced art and music show where one does not swallow the other. The art portion of the show unfortunately featured a large amount of mostly forgettable craftwork for sale that gave the show an outdoor market feel. A few gems lay hidden beneath this and otherwise trite “fine” art. The music was generally your standard indie rock fare, homogenous in look, sound, and audience, with only one inspired performance. It was also clear that when art and music went head to head, this time nobody won. Attendees seemed to go to the venue for either the art or the music, and there was very little back and forth between the two.
The photographers highlighted the art portion of the show. Abstract painter Caroline J. Page observed that photography is on an upswing in today’s art world, possibly due to its being easily digested coupled with the shortened attention spans of art consumers. Newcomer Meghan Long’s photos, which captured the grace, athleticism, movement, and artistry of classical ballet dancers, caught our eye. Vernon Langley’s work conveys a somber sense of emptiness and isolation. Jocelyn Bassler's work was among the most varied, presenting a wide range of subjects. Other photographers displaying interesting work include A.J. Nutter, Chandi Kelley, and Trevor Rathbone.
While there were many high quality photographers on display, the same cannot be said of the painters. Much of the work was hackneyed or just plain silly, e.g., the impressionistic paintings of eviscerated pigs. While we recognize our troubled times, the work seemed to be unnecessarily morose and uninspired. Exceptions include the aforementioned Ms. Page, whose abstract paintings were eye-catching. Nguyet M. Vuong displayed a series of atmospheric seascapes that depicted ghostly subjects surrounded by washes of bold blue. Chrystal Robinson’s work recalled the expressionism of Edvard Munch, and Robin Walker also had some strong pieces on display. As an aside, there are a couple of other artists and photographers we would like to highlight, but their work was not properly labeled and we could not find the artists themselves.
Quizzically, many of the displays were devoted to crafts people who had their wares for sale. The vast majority of the material was prosaic and gave the event an unfortunate flea market quality, although we did discover that someone is trying to promote a sort of Hello Kitty 2.0. The few standouts include the jewelry work of Cavanagh Craft and the playful work of Sean Hennessey. With no disrespect to the crafts people, it is not at all clear to DCist that their presence added value to an event that was perhaps misnamed as “Big Art Show.”
We cannot forget that the Big Art Show was also a night of rock and roll. The musical portion of our evening consisted of local indie rock stalwarts Stamen & Pistils, The Hard Tomorrows, Deleted Scenes, Let's French, and some visitors from Brooklyn, Mossyrock. Sadly, DCist missed the first musical act, Stamen & Pistils but we look forward to catching them at an upcoming show.
Brooklyn visitors Mossyrock had a sound somewhat reminiscent of Poi Dog Pondering, with instrumentation consisting of cello, acoustic guitar, mandolin, trumpet, drum machine, computer and keyboard. The trio's sound was a bouncy, folky indie pop, with electronic drum beats. While we liked the experimentation in the mix of instruments, it seems that Mossyrock needs a bit more polish as far as live performance. The singer was struggling with her intonation, perhaps due to a poor monitor mix (we're going to give the benefit of the doubt here), and the band was certainly far from tight. On the last track the trumpet player appeared to be way out, or playing a different song. We are not sure whether this was on purpose or not, but if it is "out" experimentation, it needs a bit of honing. Finally, the band asked us to clap to prevent them from going home and killing themselves – apparently NYC is getting soft.
Next up was The Hard Tomorrows. DCist understands that these gentlemen have a local following of dedicated indie scenesters, and the lineup was a much more standard indie rock band – guitars, drums, keys, bass. The band was well rehearsed, and by contrast tighter than their predecessors. While The Hard Tomorrows are certainly not a bad band, but there was little that distinguished them from the multitudes on Saturday night. Their sound is not a large evolutionary step from local alternative rock predecessors of yesteryear, such as Velocity Girl. While not a shoegazer band in musical style, the band spent much time gazing downwards. Don't be afraid of the crowd guys – give us a show! Do something to offend or surprise, you know, like lighting your guitar on fire or cutting off your foreskin! While DCist had been blown away by the boys on previous occasions, such as Unbuckled 2.0, it seemed that the shorter set didn’t let them get fully warmed up at Big Art Show.
The musical highlight of the evening, and by far the most talented of the bunch, were local rockers, and former DCist three star and Unbuckled highlightees, Deleted Scenes. The group provided a tight performance of well rehearsed and stylistically varied songs, as well as an indie rhythm section that could actually syncopate and play in odd meters (whoda thunk?). In another nod to the band, frontman Dan Scheuerman informed us that he had started a song in the wrong key, but that the band had automatically adjusted – a sign of a band that knows more than their way around more than three chords. The band further proved their musical deftness by switching up the instruments they were each playing from time to time, including throwing in a trumpet at one point. Deleted Scenes provided an energized set, led by Scheuerman's practiced rock star presence, and ended their performance by belting out a bit of a cheeky, honky-tonk piece of agnosticism. For our money, Deleted Scenes is better live than they are on wax (or MySpace, as the case may be).
As a finale, Let's French took the stage. Let's French provided another healthy dose of standard indie rock fare, as led by the perfectly coiffed frontman Randy Chugh. Honestly, we are not sure whether Chugh was intoxicated, forgetful, or just trying to get us to represent, but he kept reminding us that we were in Washington, DC and attending the Big Art Show. Let's French played a new song, and probably rocked the hardest of all of the evening's bands, but they seemed to lose a little bit of the audience that had built up by the time Deleted Scenes got on. It's tough to be the fifth and final band of the night, which may have hurt the band’s focus on Saturday.
In the final analysis, we asked ourselves whether quality was sacrificed for quantity and whether it did a disservice to each medium to do both at the same time. It seems that when it came to the art, we'll unfortunately have to answer in the affirmative – less would have been more. Fewer artists – and by this we mean less tchotchkes for sale – would have definitely made the show better. We didn’t come to buy ironic t-shirts, and it is unlikely that many of the other attendees did either. As such, this mish mash of arts and crafts detracted both from itself, and from the possibilities of doing a joint art and music show, which in theory is a good idea. As for the music, with the exception of Deleted Scenes it was pretty run-of-the-mill. Five bands is a lot, but with sets lasting only 40 minutes, having five bands was not necessarily overkill. The drawback of shorter sets was the bands having to leave the stage just as they were hitting their stride; but we suppose it is better to leave the audience wanting more as opposed to less. Overall, the Big Art Show was good in concept, but needs a lot of work in execution.