Some things just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Pizza and beer. Cagney and Lacey. Bobble Tiki and fortified wine.
I think you get the point.
The Tacoma School of the Arts and Stay Away From Pay to Play — an organization created by drummer Bon Von Wheelie of Girl Trouble dedicated to educating young bands and (you guessed it) keeping them away from pay to play schemes — sounds like another tandem worthy of the list. For nearly seven years, the Tacoma School of the Arts, or SOTA, has provided a positive influence and breeding ground for some of our area’s most intriguing and promising young musicians. For the past few years, Bon and Girl Trouble have been at the forefront of a fight to stop companies like Big Time Entertainment from manipulating and swindling unsuspecting youngsters into paying to play.
It seems natural, then, that the SOTA and Stay Away From Pay to Play would team up. Both are concerned with the well being of Tacoma’s budding bands and musicians, and both have something to teach.
Friday, Feb. 29, KUPS 90.1FM and the Tacoma School of the Arts Partners Foundation will co-sponsor a cream of the crop rock show featuring Girl Trouble, Guns & Rossetti, the Freakouts, and Trip the Light Fantastic. The show is free and solely designed to raise awareness for Stay Away From Pay to Play.
“It’s the new bands that pay-to-play companies go after. It’s always the kids who’ve never played a show and don’t realize that’s not how it’s done. Those bands are all coming from high schools. Especially a school like SOTA that’s so geared to the arts. Lots of musicians are coming out of there. Many of the new bands are so eager to get shows they’ll do anything. We’re trying to let them know that there’s a much better, more satisfying way,” says Von Wheelie of her Stay Away from Pay to Play efforts.
“We can see an upswing in the amount of young musicians in Tacoma. Another good scene might be on the horizon, and it would be a shame for that experience to be ruined by pay-to-play companies.”
SOTA agrees.
“One of our biggest goals in the Performing Arts Department at the School of the Arts is to encourage all of the bands, songwriters and performers that are starting their careers here at SOTA to get off campus, and play their music with other artists in the community. The pay to play companies specifically target these younger artists,” explains Zach Varnell, who teaches Audio Recording and Music Industry at SOTA as well as running Club SOTA and SOTA Studios.
“When (Von Wheelie) told us about Stay Away from Pay to Play, we thought putting a show on in Tacoma would be a great way to get the word out to younger artists. Club SOTA was started as a venue for younger artists to showcase their music alongside established artists as a way to encourage new music to be made, and younger bands to be heard.”
Not only does it seem natural to see SOTA and Stay Away from Pay to Play teaming up to raise awareness, but the lineup of rock bands chosen for this bill couldn’t be better. You know when there’s an event railing against the evils of pay to play Girl Trouble will be involved, and with Girl Trouble often comes the Freakouts (who are like Jedi Masters in training under GT), but throwing Trip the Light Fantastic and especially Guns & Rossetti into the mix was a stroke of genius. Did I mention this show is free? Considering the talent and the price, there’s absolutely no good reason for missing it.
“I think this show will be a solid rock blowout. All these bands put the emphasis on ‘the show.’ The music is great but they also know that entertaining an audience is important,” says Von Wheelie.
Most are familiar with Dick Rossetti from his days as a smart-ass DJ on 107.7 the End. Rossetti had a decent run with the Entercom ruled frequency, until Entercom decided they’d rather have a radio station that sucked and featured putrid audio excrement like Adam Corolla and the Church of Lazlo. Rossetti was let go.
But for longer than Rossetti was a Seattle radio personality he’s been a rocker. His obvious expertise on the subject is one of the things that made him so appealing on-air. He’s fronted a string of beautifully gritty local rock outfits, including Twink the Wonder Kid and the short lived Root Barrel. Now Rossetti brings his latest offering, Guns & Rossetti to Tacoma.
“Guns & Rossetti is basically the same lineup as the short lived Root Barrels, an experiment that broke up due to some of the Ten Commandments being broken,” explains Rossetti.
“We’ve got a CD forthcoming called SPINS, the first single will be ‘Douchebag Boyfriend,’ produced by Conrad Uno.
“And perhaps one single T-shirt.”
For those who miss Rossetti on the radio, rest assured he misses you, too — kind of. While certain parts of the job still seem to have a place in Rossetti’s heart, it doesn’t sound like he holds his former employer in very high regard.
“I miss working with Harms and Jim Keller. Without sounding like sour grapes — I can't believe they're (Entercom) letting that 'clown' (Lazlo) sink the station,” says Rossetti.
“With that said, the statement may be a disservice to actual clowns, who are regarded as funny and somewhat entertaining.”
But hyped-up corporate radio drama isn’t what the Stay Away from Pay to Play show at Club SOTA on Feb. 29 is about. It’s about one of the best rock bands in Tacoma’s history (Girl Trouble) teaming up with two of the Wired City’s most promising (Trip the Light Fantastic and the Freakouts), and topping it off with Mr. Dick Rossetti and his latest ironic garage band, Guns & Rossetti.
And, of course, it’s about staying away from pay to play.
See you at SOTA Friday.
[Tacoma School of the Arts, Girl Trouble, Guns & Rossetti, the Freakouts, and Trip the Light Fantastic, Friday, Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m., all ages, no cover, 1117 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.571.7920]
